A helpful musician

My husband was showing an out of town friend the way to a local music story where the friend could buy strings for his guitar.  We live downtown and there is always a broad variety of people on Queen Street W near Steve's Music.  Some were amblers, some were shoppers, others were street people asking for money.  Our friends decided to buy two sets of strings at the music store.  On their way back home, my husband watched our friend, bend down to give a street person playing a guitar one set of strings.  Later, he explained that he noticed some of that person's strings were missing when he heard him play as they walked on their way to the store.  "It's his living", our friend said, "we should always help someone make a living". 

Surprises on the Jerusalem Tram

In September 2011, a new light rail vehicle line was innaugurated on the Jaffa Road in Jerusalem after many delays in the construction process.  For that first month, it was free to one and all.  We decided to board it near our hotel and travel to the end of the line in east Jerusalem.  As usual, no one queued for boarding public transit.  Those with the sharpest elbows got on the tram and found a seat first.  Then, to my great surprise, those of us who boarded last were evaluated for our seat worthiness by those seated.  Old people, pregnant women, mothers with small children, the disabled were all quickly offered the seats before the tram even started up again. It did not matter if you were obviously an Arab or a Jew or someone hard to place like a tourist, if you qualified, you were offered a seat.  The seats were offered by Arabs to Jews and by Jews to Arabs.  After the great push at the door, I was amazed.  At every stop thereafter, the same thing happened, sharp elbows boarded first, and seats were offered to the seat-worthy before the tram started again.  I love happy surprises.

Last week, our book was published. A multi-faith, international group of women wrote essays stories and poetry on our own spiritual journeys. We each tell you where we have been, how we have grown and where we are focused for the present and the near future. It's an amazing series of women's experiences and reflections on growing with faith. Women, Spirituality and Transformative Leadership: Where Grace Meets Power is available on www.amazon.ca. It's a provocative read!

Interfaith Journey to Israel #6

In the Path of Abraham: A Jewish, Christian, Muslim Experience of the Holy Land
September 5-11, 2011
Day 5

We woke up this morning in Jerusalem.  After an early breakfast, we drove to a spectacular view of the Mount of Olives.  We were not the only ones travelling by tour bus that chose the early morning view.  The was a whole herd of buses at the viewpoint and we climbed down joining other tourists.  We drove down through the Judean desert to Masada, a mountain top fortress, built by King Herod over 2000 years ago.  This was the site of the last stand of a group of Jewish zealots against the Romans.  Their only choice was to be enslaved or killed by the Romans.  They chose death by suicide as the Roman army approached the fortress after building a hill road to it with Jewish slaves, already captured. 

The rocky desert is hauntingly beautiful but it seemed a rather austere place to be. There were huge water caverns dug out of the rock beneath the fortress.   What little rain that fell in the desert was funneled by rain gutters cut into the rock so that it would run into these caverns. It was a great feat of engineering.
The heat was daunting.  There were a group of tourists there from a cruise ship.  One woman decided to wear minimal clothing to improve her tanning potential.  She nearly passed out from heat prostration.  Another passenger tried to cool her off with cold water bottles under protest from the insensible woman.   As I watched others try to look after her, I was grateful for her kind friends watching out for her despite her resistance to their efforts.

We drove back up to Jerusalem in time to welcome the Sabbath at the Western Wall.  It was quite a sight to see groups of men, dancing and singing in the Sabbath, the Jewish day of rest and renewal with such joyful vigour.  The members of our interfaith group were swept into the dancing on both the men's and women's side of the prayer space in front of the wall.  Many people told me that this was one of the most moving experiences of the trip. 

Interfaith Journey to Israel #5

In the Path of Abraham: A Jewish, Christian, Muslim Experience of the Holy Land
September 5-11, 2011
Day 4

We began our day at the Temple Mount, the location of the famous Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque, holy sites in Islam.  But few of our Muslim friends were with us because they were visiting the Mosque where Christians and Jews are not longer allowed to visit.  We were standing in a circle on the beautiful grounds in the early morning sunshine, when one the guardians of the site, clanging two metal "pot covers" together, ran toward us shouting.  "No prayers here, no Jewish prayers" and kept clanging this metal pot covers together to prevent any prayers from reaching God's ears.  He started shouting directly at me.  "you Jew, no prayers" I told him quietly not to worry.  I was not praying.  Our Roman Catholic priest had been praying for peace in Jerusalem a few minutes earlier.  We all left the site.

Our bus took us all the Yad Vashem, the Jerusalem Holocaust Museum.  I have visited this museum many times but I find each experience to be unique.  Survivor, Hanna Pick, shared some of her story with us in a private room.  She had been a childhood friend of Anne Frank and the story she shared was around her friendship with Anne Frank when they were schoolgirl friends in Amsterdam, both German immigrants, escaping the Nazis in a new city.  As a fellow prisoner, she also met up with Anne Frank again in 1945 just before Anne Frank and her sister Margot died of typhus in the concentration camp.  Our whole group was profoundly affected by this experience.

Back in the bus, we drove to Gush Etzion, a settlement in the disputed territory (the West Bank) beyond the "green line".  Mayor Saul Goldstein, gave a talk about why the Jewish settlements make sense to him.  These areas that were intended to be Arab Palestine by the UN in 1947, were given by God to the Jewish tribes of Judah and Simon when the Jewish people entered the land from slavery in Egypt according to the Bible.   In fact, Jews bought back some of this land from Turkish landholders in the 20th century for purposes of Jewish settlement.  There were Arab raids on the settlements before the founding of the state of Israel and the children of the original settlers, the fathers of whom were killed in the raids, returned after the 1967 war.    Saul Goldstein and his fellow settlers has created a beautiful, green community and were determined not to leave it again for the sake of a peace deal.

Back in the bus, we drove to Hebron, a mostly Arab city in the disputed territory.  In Hebron, which existed from the biblical era, there is a cave, purchased by Abraham, where most of the Jewish patriarchs and matriarchs are buried according to the Bible.   Muslims also revere Abraham.  Buildings have been erected around this cave to mark the holy site.  However, after terrible battles between the Muslims and the Jews in current times, the building has been divided into a Jewish section of access and a Muslim section of access for visits.

We have seen much "marking of territory" by each religious group and even within religious groups on this visit and lots of hyperbole about who is really in charge.  It makes a mockery of holiness for everyone.

We returned to Jerusalem late but went on a tour of the archeological tunnel under the western wall.  How such huge stones were cut and laid out with biblical era technology is a mystery to me.
More about Jerusalem later.

Interfaith Journey to Israel #4

In the Path of Abraham: A Jewish, Christian, Muslim Experience of the Holy Land
September 5-11, 2011
Day 3

This was the most challenging day of our trip together.  So far, we had been bussed from site to site, visited religious historical sites and heard some presentations about current interfaith relationships within Israel.  The presenters spoke with relatively hopeful attitudes that we received this information with guarded optimism.  Today we were focused on the borders between one and another.  During my previous visits to Israel before the 2 Intifadas, the Jews and the Arabs lived side by side relatively quietly.  Israelis visited Palestinian villages and cities and many Palestinian people worked in Jewish towns and returned home in the evenings. Now it is very different.  To prevent easy access to suicide bombers many of whom came from Jenin, the borders are fixed and well guarded.  This is an aspect of the “security issue” that is a thorn in the side of those who disagree with Israel’s position.  Today we visited Jenin, a Palestinian town and refugee camp.  Our buses, less our Israeli Jewish guide, were boarded by Israeli soldiers so that we could show our passports.  Israelis are not allowed to travel to Jenin.  We first visited a tiny Orthodox church from the 4^th century in Burkin where we were greeted by the church caretaker.  There is no Christian community using this church regularly at this time.  Again, the icons were beautiful and the light in the church was soft. 

Our next stop was to a new hotel which was located next to a midway with rides like a roller coaster and Ferris wheel that was not open at the time.  The juxtaposition of the marble hotel and the silent midway in the noonday sun was compelling.  The hotel was quiet too.  We were welcomed by the Governor of Jenin and district, Abu Musa.  He was a serious person who blamed Israel for all the misfortunes of his people.  Cookies and juice and water were offered to us before we left for the buses to take us back to the border.  I was happy to have had this snack because we spent about 2 hours at the border crossing.  Israeli soldiers were serious and business-like in putting us through a security routine similar to what we experience before boarding a plane.  Some of us were angry and upset.  Others took this experience in stride as a necessary precaution when 2 peoples are at war with each other.  There is not only a high physical wall here between the communities but also a strong psychological barrier of deeply felt mistrust.  We were hot and uncomfortable with this experience but everyone held his or her temper. 

We boarded the buses again and went to Bethlehem to visit the Church of the Nativity and see Manger Square.  The Church housed 2 Orthodox communities and was adjoined by a Roman Catholic Church that was build later.  Our guide explained the significance of the church layout and described the services and crowds at Christmas time.  Opposite the Church facing Manger Square was a newly built mosque to serve the growing Muslim community in Bethlehem. 

We were exhausted as individuals when we checked into our hotel in Jerusalem but there was yet another presentation scheduled for that evening at dinner.  We heard from two brave and dignified representatives from The Parent’s Circle, a group of about 500 people, both Israeli and Palestinian who lost loved ones in the ongoing conflict.  We came to this dinner with many unresolved feelings about our experiences together and the stories that each person, Mr. Rami Ehanan and Ms. Seham (Moira) Ikhalyel, told us, moved each of us as individuals. Everything we experienced so far became the context for how we heard their stories of loss. 

We went to our beds exhausted, both physically and emotionally.

Interfaith Journey to Israel #3

In the Path of Abraham: A Jewish, Christian, Muslim Experience of the Holy Land

September 5-11, 2011

Day 2

On this day, we experienced the land from a Christian point of view.  Kibbutz Lavi is near the Sea of Galilee.  After a very generous breakfast at the Kibbutz, our buses drove to Tiberius where we boarded a wooden boat for ride modelled on an experience of Jesus in the Bible.  We heard the biblical text with the soft wind blowing in our faces as we looked out on the pastoral hills surrounding the water.   Next, we bussed on to Capernaum, the location of St. Peter’s home where a modern Franciscan Church now stands.  One of our religious leaders, F. Damien McPherson is a Franciscan monk and we were greeted with great warmth.  We heard a reading of the Beatitudes, also known as the Sermon on the Mount.  Our next stop was a baptismal site called Yardenit where the Jordan River meets the Sea of Galilee.  Some Christians in our group chose to reaffirm their baptism there and stood in a semi-circle in the shallow water of the Jordan River.  Tiny fishes darted between their legs.  The Christian clergy both Roman Catholic and Protestant undertook the ceremony.  We sat in the dappled shade and watched.  The look of quiet happiness and joy on the faces of our Christian friends as they re-affirmed their baptism was very moving to see. 

In the afternoon, we visited the Christian site of Kfar Cana a village where Jesus performed the miracle of the wine.  The roads wound up and down steep hills and the views of the valleys were spectacular from the air-conditioned bus window.  How difficult it must have been for people in biblical times to walks these hills in the heat, carrying what they needed for the journey and hoping for the best!  You could understand the importance of hospitality at that time.

Later that afternoon, we had a bus tour of Haifa, a city that lies on the Carmel Mountain range and a narrow plain on the coast of Israel.  Where the small villages in Israel are often mostly Arab Christian and Muslim or Jewish, the cities are all mixed with people from all those communities plus others who are not affiliated with those communities.  We visited Beit Hagefen, the Centre for Arab-Jewish culture, youth and sports in Haifa.  We heard some speeches and saw a film about the work of this centre and I bought some postcards as a memento.    This place and the dialogue centre in south Tel Aviv both gave me some hope that grass roots dialogues can continue while the political battles and inter-community confrontations rage on.

We returned to Kibbutz Lavi, ate dinner and fell asleep immediately on the pillow. Another early start is planned for tomorrow.  It feels to me like we have been touring for a week.