Twenty-two pastors will travel together Jan 27 to Feb 10 to the land of our faith's beginnings. We will visit, learn, pray, and reflect on what we experience there and our vocations at home. This blog shares our journey with our friends and family at home. We covet your prayers. Funded by the CF Foundation of Atlanta, the pilgrimage is led by the Rev. Dr. Trisha Tull and the Rev. Jane Larsen-Wigger. Please leave comments by clicking on "comments" at the end of any entry.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Nina's Notes for Sunday

Nina's Notes - Sunday, February 5 Since this is Sunday, my heart has been longing for my faith community in both thoughts and prayers. It was 6:00 pm in Jerusalem when Highland was worshipping at the 11:00 hour and I thought of the music, the prayers, and sharing the Lord's Supper - and I missed being there. Our pilgrim group was gathered in our own time of devotion at 6:00 pm so we paused and prayed for our home churches. We are surrounded by people of so many faiths here in Jerusalem, but I have missed MY people of faith at Highland Baptist Church today. Our worship took place early this morning at the church of the Holy Sepulcher. This church houses the tomb of Jesus and Golgotha, as well as several sanctuaries or worship spaces. We got to experience portions of worship with the Ethiopians, Syrians, Greek Orthodox, Copts, Armenians, and Arabs. All worshipped in different areas of the church at various times this morning. We couldn't understand their language but we did experience their devotion and praise of God. In between the worship services our guest guide, Hana Bendcowsky, of the Jerusalem Center for Jewish-Christian Relations, taught us more about the church and the people who worship there. She is quite a scholar and we felt we had taken an entire seminary course by the time we finished at noon. For lunch we were invited to the Wujud Museum and were served a bountiful lunch by Palestinian Christian women. We were given a tour of the museum which is housed in a 650 year old building that had been refurbished in 2008/2009. We had the privilege of hearing a dynamic woman speak about the plight of the Palestinian Christians. It planted new seeds for many of us to ponder. There are so many images, smells, tastes, and sounds from the day that keep playing through my head - from the beautiful music of the Armenians, to the Coptic priest sharing some of the blessed bread with us, to the feel of the rock at Golgotha. Quite an amazing day and one that I will ponder for some time. Tomorrow we head to Bethlehem so stay tuned!
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