Week 3 Highlights - Dome of the Rock, Christian Quarter, Tree Lighting

 How can it be only 3 1/2  weeks?  Maybe your December is starting to feel a little bit overfull with good things, too!  I've been blessed with so many holy sites and walking and learning new faces and special events, it seems like two or three months have elapsed since I left Utah.  Also it takes three times as many store visits to find all my groceries, so that is warping my perception of time, too! 

 

We were so grateful to be able to take a tour of the Dome of the Rock.  This is a special privilege that is rare nowadays for non-Muslims, so we gratefully agreed to dress and act in modest, dignified ways that would show respect for our guide and the Muslims who would be using this space for prayer and study.  We removed our shoes as we entered each building.  This act shows reverence (as the soles of the shoes are considered not just dirty but disrespectful.  Putting your shoes on someone's furniture is traditionally very offensive).

The students were equally excited for this opportunity.  Here is our friend Kinley Griffin, whose dad Tyler is one of Frank's colleagues and who is a gifted teacher and wonderful disciple in her own right.

 

The beautiful and majestic features of this building are indescribable and innumerable!  Its sheer size and scale, the abundant ornamentation with exquisite materials and workmanship, and the precisely circling calligraphy all create a fitting shrine to the grandeur and eternity of God.  

But this building is also a living holy space where individuals and groups pray or study.  We came at a time when dozens of women were studying in reverent silence, some with children sitting by their feet on the plush carpet.  There were modern digital time boards telling the times for the 5 daily prayers, which shift based on sunrise and sunset.  

To me, these elegant geometries represent the order and eternal nature of God.  If you see a small part of the pattern you know the next part of the pattern and the next as it repeats in a predictable fashion.  Even if part of the pattern is hidden behind a pillar, you know what is there because it adheres to the greater design.  To me, this could reflect trying to make my private self as whole and wholesome as my public self, trying to speak and act in accordance with my true eternal identity and worth, and striving to reflect God's light into all aspects of life.  You could take it as a reminder of God's perfection. (Thankfully, I'm on a covenant team with Jesus Christ - it is his perfect righteousness that saves me, not my own!)

According to our guide, the calligraphy includes quotes from the Quran and credits the patrons of the building.  One section  of calligraphy praises Mary as the mother of Jesus Christ, who they consider a holy prophet slightly elevated above the other prophets in scripture.  The Quran is sometimes compared to the Doctrine and Covenants in the way it is revered as a collection of revelations from God to a prophet.  Some parts are about doctrines, some are about prophets from the Old and New Testament, and some parts are about the right way to act in specific circumstances.

We were also able to visit the al-Aksa Mosque, which is another gorgeous prayer space.  This building bears scars from violent clashes in the past and is awaiting permission to be repaired, permission which is unlikely to be granted.

These inlaid marble panels would make a lovely quilt pattern.

This pulpit is made by hand with thousands of interlocking pieces with traditional tools and assembled with no glue or nails.  

Even the door handles of the al-Aksa Mosque were intricate.  

We were also able to visit a recently renovated underground prayer space which is beautiful and peaceful.

This building and the platform it sits on were peaceful the day we visited, with no outward signs of their controversial and violent history.   It is an uneasy peace, but still we were grateful for the time to visit, to ogle at the abundant beauty, to watch the quiet worshippers, and to hear our guide's perspective.  

Our guide said repeatedly that the buildings were just buildings, that Muslims worship God, not the buildings, but the whole area represents their identity as a people.  He talked at length about the teachings of Islam, highlighting the beautiful tenets that would resonate with people of many faith traditions.  From his explanation, it sounded clear that the violence that has been committed by Islamic extremists is not congruent with the principles of Islam and would be abhorrent to mainstream Muslims.  He talked at length about how his people and his land have been treated, which is understandable.  I don't pretend to be able to weigh all these perspectives and judge between one viewpoint and another.  Thankfully I am not the judge here.  

I feel like in every religion, there is the ideal, and then somewhere far below there are the real life efforts of people to live that ideal in their actual daily lives.  And every religious tradition-- and for that matter political ideology has followers who do terrible things in the name of that ideology.  This visit made me think about how hard it would be to ensure that all adherents of a faith system follow the tenets and principles with fidelity, and the difficulty of ensuring that no one ventures off into extremes where one sliver is taken to be more important than everything else.  I imagine that fear, lack of compassion, and disconnection play a role in that extremism, and maybe one possible antidote is connection and trying to insulate ourselves from being manipulated by fear.  

Okay, back to the eye candy.

Another day brought another interesting door.  This has no latch on the outside, just a knocker.  We stood at the door and knocked.  And waited.  Finally it opened into the Church of St. Anne's by the Pool of Bethesda. 

This field trip focused on Christian sites, so we were mostly in the Christian Quarter. 

Side note:  The other quarters are the Muslim Quarter, the Jewish Quarter, and the Armenian Quarter.  Yes, Armenians are Christians, too, but they occupy a special place in the city.  I was able to visit the Armenian Christmas bazaar with my friend and see the tight-knit community celebrating together.  Quick glimpse of the Armenian Quarter: 

The entryway to the Church of St. James.

The courtyard among houses and community centers.

We enjoyed some chimney cake, which is dough rolled around the cylindrical metal tool and baked rotisserie style, then powdered with cinnamon or coconut.  Tasted somewhat like a churro.  

Back to the Christian Quarter.

This is outside St. Anne's Church which stands near the remnants of the Pool of Bethesda.  

A Byzantine church once straddled the pools, so there are many interesting ruins.  My favorite part is the Crusader church celebrating Anne, the mother of Mary.  The acoustics are marvelous and the caretakers have generously allowed students to sing there for years.  The last notes of the songs linger up in the ceiling, and I imagine those resonating notes as the lingering presence of the faith and goodwill created by the music.

Just down the lane from St. Anne's is a pair of churches sharing a courtyard, and these churches commemorate the Savior being condemned by Pilate and whipped.  Students reverently entered these chapels to ponder, then found the viewpoint from which this popular painting was composed.

Ancient walls and living plants are so beautiful together.

Here's a peek at how vendors move their wares around the city.  We also saw a 4 wheeler climbing these steep stairs.

These paintings are from the Russian Orthodox Church of Alexander Nevsky.  The church has unusual architecture for a church, having initially been designed as an embassy and hostel.  

These paintings are huge and hang some 15 feet above eye level.  They circle around the interior space narrating the story of Jesus' arrest, death, and resurrection.

We visited Christ's Church, which was the first Protestant chapel built in the Holy Land.  According to our guide, at the time this church was built in the mid 1800s, the city was in disrepair and many Jews were struggling.  A Jewish man who became an Anglican bishop bought land for this chapel, and as the story goes, it was also to be an embassy, as it was easier to get permission  for an embassy, and an ambassador was entitled to a chapel.  The bishop started a hospital, school, and industries like wood carving.

This church was intentionally designed to  be welcoming to Jews.  This was partially to provide a place where those Jews who embraced Jesus Christ as Messiah could feel comfortable worshipping him while still enjoying their familiar symbols and heritage.  There are no pictures or icons, rather an altar with Hebrew characters and a wooden structure resembling a Torah ark containing the ten commandments and Christian creeds in Hebrew.  Today the space is shared by and English speaking Anglican congregation, an Arabic speaking Anglican congregation, and a Hebrew speaking Messianic Jewish congregation.  

The symbol of the cross makes a subtle appearance in the stained glass windows.  If you look at the left panel, you'll see a cross among the branches, while the right panel has a representation of a menorah.

The Syriac Orthodox church of St. Mark's is located in the Armenian Quarter, close to the Christian Quarter.  The main liturgical language is Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus and early Christians before Greek became the lingua franca.  The history of this church is intricate and goes back centuries.  There is a small chapel at current ground level, a lower prayer space celebrated as the location of the last supper (as centuries go by, ground level rises, so the upper room is now underground).  This property has undergone renovations which created an arched underground space for worship.  

The ceiling has a magnificent mosaic celebrating the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended like a flame on gathered worshippers and prepared them to preach the good news of Jesus Christ to many nations.  

At the front of the worship space a mosaic artfully teaches about the last supper, with a pitcher of water for washing of feet, a rooster foreshadowing Peter's denial, and a bag in Judas' hand.  On either side of the curtain are two pulpits, representing the Old and New Testaments.  

The priest described his headwear as having twelve crosses on the front for the 12 apostles, and on big cross on the back for Jesus, who pushes his disciples out into the world to tell people the good news of the Gospel.  He said the line down the front represents Saint Antonio who restored unity between Christ and his disciples during a time when Satan was creating divisions.

The priest shared his experience of praying to know what his personal mission should be at a time when the Syriac congregations were all separated and the Aramaic language was declining in everyday use.  He heard the Spirit tell him to write.  This surprised him because writing Aramaic is so difficult, with letter forms dating back to the 4th century.  But he accepted this assignment and began studying the craft.  He has since written the complete Bible 5 times and shared copies with various congregations.  

At the Church of the Holy Sepulcher I noticed this mosaic in the Catholic Chapel of Calvary.  Mary is mourning but also pensive, and she is still standing.  Did she know this day would come?  Did she know the day of resurrection would follow?  Like Christ when he wept over Lazarus, her tears would soon be turned to joy, but in this moment, she is fully present with the suffering that is before her.  

The rock-cut tomb is enshrined in marble (which probably protected it from overzealous pilgrims' chisels over the years).  Also knows as the Edicule, this chapel houses multiple icons and paintings venerating the site from many different denonimations.  

In a crypt below the church is a quarry turned chapel which venerates St. Helena who came to Jerusalem to find and commemorate holy sites.   As the chapel was empty at the time, it made a good place to ponder and reflect in silence, which is not always easy to do in this bustling church.  As Dr. Gaye Strathearn said, "I thank God for the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and I also thank God for a woman named Helena who brought attention to this space which invites us to visit and feel close to God." 

Armenian orthodox mosaics - sorry for the poor quality photo!

A very famous old door, frozen in time by the Status Quo but still functioning, is unlocked every morning by the Muslim caretaker of the key.  

Towers of spices are common along the main shopping areas of the old city.  This is one place East Jerusalem residents can come find what they need.  

This is another view of the shopping area.  Always so much to see, vendors calling out in the languages of the passers-by, smells of spices and cigarettes and pita and incense.  

We found enchiladas in West Jerusalem!  They are kosher dairy, so no meat, but still yummy and the variety was very welcome.

Our son-in-law Burton was on the second-place winning team at a Robotics competition at the University of Utah.  This bad boy was designed, built, and coded by engineering students to detect colors, push buttons, pick up blocks, and stack them to create a structure.  Pretty cool!

We visited the Kotel Tunnel, which starts near the Western Wall and runs parallel to it underground.  The only wrinkle was that there was no guide available.  So Frank guided the students through!  Luckily he had just spent several hours the previous day preparing to teach students about the tunnel during class, so it was all fresh in his mind, and he did great!

This is the third underground worship space we saw in three days, one Christian, one Muslim, one Jewish, each to solve the problem of lack of space and abundance of worshippers.  In this case, a synagogue was created near the Kotel Tunnel where groups could gather in relative quiet and privacy no matter the weather.  

This photo shows a portion of the biggest stone yet discovered in the Temple Mount platform.  Herod's construction crew must have had some amazing tricks up their tunics to be able to shape and move this massive slab of rock.  

In several places down the tunnel we saw prayer slips wedged into the wall.  Notice that there is no room between the upper and lower stones for even a piece of paper, the fit is so tight!

Near the northern end of the tunnel, the ancient street we had been following came to an abrupt end.  You can see behind this handsome tour guide the deep groove of some kind of saw and on the right are some ancient stone slabs that were waiting to be set on the ground.  No one knows why the work ended abruptly but the components have been left in place as clues to the process.  

This column was likely lifted into place with the help of these protrusions.  The final step of smoothing away the knobs never happened.  

There are ancient water collection areas to the north east of the temple mount.  This one has some Herodian fish.  

I had the chance to take a drawing lesson from my good friend Shulamit Near.  This is the same artist who painted the panoramic view of Jerusalem that hangs in my living room.  I was grateful for this chance although charcoal was new to me.  But I had seen Emily use charcoal, using blackened fingers to blend her drawings, so I had a vague idea how it worked.  I picked an interesting subject, a wooden sculpture with a very cool shadow, reminiscent of Rodin's Thinker.

Maybe someday I'll delve into art a little more.  It's all about seasons.  Speaking of which, the season of my masters degree is officially over!  

I hopped on over to the Anglican School's Christmas Bazaar for some cider and gingerbread cookies.  Neither Jen Hopkin nor I have students at the school anymore, but there were plenty of familiar faces and fond memories.  

Fron a bulletin board in the welcome center, there is the cute face of Amanda, from her 10th grade year!

We went out to eat with these lovely people.  New discovery:  Hummus with diced beef!  Where has this been all my life?  

These last images below are from the Christmas Tree Lighting Celebration last Thursday.  It was a big undertaking (mostly for the lovely people above) but so much fun, so many smiles!

To wrap it up, last week I mused about the ways we can learn about Jesus Christ as a historical figure, like read about Him and visit places He has been.  

But what if instead of trying to get to know someone from the past, you were trying to get to know someone who lives now?  That would completely change the game plan.  You'd probably talk to them often, listen to them even more often, and read and reply to their messages.  You'd probably invite them to your home and visit theirs.  You'd probably think about them when you're apart, remember their favorite things, and reach out when you realize it's been too long.  These all take effort and intention. 

One example of extra effort: because of the time difference here, my parents and 8 siblings moved our next monthly video chat to 8 am on a Saturday.  Considering that Saturday morning is prime time for either sleeping or getting things done, that says a lot and I am touched by their sacrifice.  

In so many ways, God and Jesus Christ have shown that they want a living, ongoing relationship with me and you and the whole world.  And there are countless ways we can  reciprocate.   I feel my relationship with God and Jesus Christ grow as I interact with their other beloved children, especially beloved friends whom I haven't seen for 2 years.  I feel their love as I learn about other people of faith.  And when heaven seems distant, I can reach out in prayer knowing they'll be right there, listening, ready to give to those that ask, and upbraid not.