Stations of the Resurrection Pilgrimage
Travelogue

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April 27, 2007
Friday
Day Three

We began this day, Friday, with a Stations of the Cross devotional service on the Via Dolorosa. As Friday was the day Jesus was crucified, in Jerusalem it is customary for pilgrims to walk the Via Dolorosa, and the Franciscans lead this procession each week at 3:00 pm. Beginning through Herod's Gate and looking at the place of Bethsaida, with ruins dating back thousands of years, we could see just how deep under current Jerusalem the place for Jesus' journey began. This helped us all to see how Jesus indeed went "up" to Jerusalem. We sang Dona Nobis Pacem in the acoustically perfect Church of St. Anne, dedicated to the mother of Mary. From there we walked to the traditionally beginning point of the Via Dolorosa by old Herod's Palace and the Ecce Homo ("This is the man"-spoken by Herod) arch. We walked all 14 stations, folks taking turns carrying the cross and reading passages from scripture and tradition, and praying: We adore you O Christ, and we bless you. By your holy cross you have redeemed the world. Some stations had chapels. Some stations had only numbers on a city wall. Our journey took us past shops, inhabitants of the city, and a day in life just as Jesus must have made his journey.

The last five stations are in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (outside the original city-now in the heart of the Old City), begun by Constantine's mother Helena in the 4th century. This is the site of the Jesus' stripped of his clothes, nailed to the cross, death, taken down from the cross, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Pilgrims were moved at they entered through the Coptic Monastery, then ascending to Golgotha. Many knelt and prayed individually with other pilgrims throughout the world.

Descending the stairs to the place of the tomb pilgrims cued up to enter the Holy Sepulchre itself, as Orthodox monks monitored traffic.

Lunch was nearby at the rooftop restaurant Papa Andrea's, overlooking the Church of the Redeemer and all major features of the Old City: The Dome of the Rock and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Choices for food were falafel (ground chickpea shaped into a ball and fried) or shawarma (spiced chicken sliced from a spit).

Soon after lunch and regrouping at the Guesthouse, we met Catharina Wilson of the Israeli Committee Against Housing Demolitions (ICAHD) who explained that her organization reframes the argument for security, which adds to conflict by advocating for international law. ICAHD draws attention to a matrix of control in five areas: 1) restricted areas under the Oslo Accord, 2) roadblocks and checkpoints (700 in the West Bank), 3) Settlement Blocks around the West Bank and Jerusalem, 4) Roads, and 5) the Wall (Bishop Younan calls this a wailing wall). We then toured around Jerusalem to see examples of this matrix.

We concluded the day as Dalia Landau, who shared Sabbath reflections and Sabbath rituals with us. Dalia is the founder of the Open Door, a community that intentionally develops relationships between Israelis and Palestinians. She urged us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and to envelop opposing sides and viewpoints, even marveling at the symbol of the cross with its pulling at vertical and horizontal dimensions. She then escorted us to the Western Wall, the outer wall of 2nd Temple which Jesus himself frequented and taught at, and where people pray round the clock. We walked back through the Jewish and then the Armenian Quarter, saying Shabbat Shalom! Blessed and peaceful Sabbath!

Tim Keyl
Christ the King Lutheran Church
Nashua, New Hampshire


Click here to see Pastor Tim's photos of the Pilgrimage on Flickr.

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