Sharing Worship

One of the many joys of this trip has been sharing in worship with people of different traditions and experiences. This has happened during a number of ways during my time at Tantur.
Every morning (apart from Sunday) has begun with Morning Prayer said in the garden at Tantur. At this early hour (sometimes as early as 6a.m.!) the sun is up but the real heat of the day is still to build. Prayer has been led by a different person from the British Trust for Tantur group (of which I am a member). The prayer has followed the Anglican Common Worship form with its mix of prayers, psalms, canticles and readings. You would expect that this would not leave much space for variation but as each person has led it has been wonderful to feel the warmth and strength of their particular tradition and personality shining through.

Each evening we return to Tantur and a 5:30 pm we meet in the chapel for Evening Worship. This the ‘British Trust group’ share with the other residents of Tantur – people from America, Australia, Italy and a number of other countries who have come together to study and experience the Holy Land for a whole month. Many of this group are already ordained into a range of Churches. The service is much more open to each pair leading to bring the richness of their own tradition to worship. We have followed the Lutheran rite for evening worship, Roman Catholic prayers from the Carmelite Order; we have spent time in silent meditation around a visual interpretation of the conflict in this land; we have been invited to express our prayer visually using paint and coloured pens. We have journeyed out from the Chapel onto the roof area to overlook and pray for Bethlehem and we have said Anglican Evening Prayer, amongst others which I may well have forgotten. As you can see this has been an enormously rich and spiritually rewarding experience. Despite our many differences which we have discussed at some length over meals and the occasional evening beer, we have come together with a common desire to praise God and pray for his people.

This unity of purpose was particularly illustrated last week when those of us in the ‘British Trust group’ came together for a memorial service for the brother of Jones, one of our number. His brother Beverley had tragically died of Malaria over the weekend which was left untreated due to the doctors and nurses being on strike in their home country of Zambia. We came together on the same day of the funeral, prayed, thanked God for his life and held Jones and his wider family up to the comforting care of God. In speaking of Beverley, Jones gave us a picture of a strong, caring brother whose encouragement for Jones to play the guitar led him to attend church regularly where he could borrow a guitar to play and it time to be ordained and become an Archdeacon and bishop’s assistant in Zambia. At this moment divisions took second place behind our care for Jones, our trust in the Resurrection hope and our need for the strengthening love of God.

Further afield
Sorry that this seems to have become such a long posting. There is so much to tell!!

Four other experiences must be briefly mentioned.
On the first Sunday we visited the Carmelite Church of Abu Gosh, one of several proposed sites of the post Easter appearance of Jesus at Emmaus. Although in French, this Catholic Mass was reasonably easy to follow (even with my most basic level French!). Is was also stunningly beautiful, sung in Plain Chant the only accompaniment being that of a harp (played by one of the Nuns) and flute (played by one of the monks). To see a short video containing some of the singing from Abu Gosh click on 'The Calling Voice' - left.

Last Friday some of us were lucky enough to be able to attend a Shabbat eve service at Kehilat Kol Haneshama (http://www.kolhaneshama.org.il/english/index.asp). This is a Progressive Jewish synagogue / community centre (hence ‘Kehilat’). We were met and told about the work of the synagogue which is very active in the local community and in encouraging both equality and moves towards peace. The service then began and we were encourage to take part. I will endeavour to copy the introduction of the service book and its instructions concerning prayer. I feel it expresses things that any praying person would do well to hear. The service was great. The congregation of about 300 had almost every age from babies to the elderly well represented. The singing was wonderful, traditional Jewish melodies clearly deep from the heart, with some which reminded me of the music of Taize and some modern choruses. Prayers and some of the songs were translated as well as being written down in Latin letters alongside the Hebrew so we were able to join in with some of them. The atmosphere was warm and welcoming. This synagogue is unusual in Jerusalem – most being much more orthodox. It was a great way to hear about a more modern interpretation of the Jewish tradition and to see it in action.

This Sunday Jonah (my fellow Cuddesdonite traveller) and I went into Bethlehem to the Lutheran Christmas Church (http://www.bethlehemchristmaslutheran.org/). We attended a service of the Word with a Baptism of a little Palestinian boy. The congregation was largely made up Palestinian Christians with on visiting Swedish observer from the World Council of Churches and one other American lady who regularly leads groups to Bethlehem as tourists and as volunteers to work with the needy in the community. The service was in Arabic apart from the baptism which was in German. Once again we were able to take part in the service due to some excellent translations. It was wonderful to be able to worship together and to be made to feel so welcomed by this people who are suffering through being a double minority – they are Palestinians in Israel and they are Christian amongst Palestinians. After the service we went into their Church hall for coffee and excellent cake. With the Sunday School display on the wall, the parents chatting and cooing over the newly baptised baby and the children chasing around we could have been anywhere rather than in a town besieged by a 24 foot concrete and barbed wire covered wall celebrating the birth of the Prince of Peace!

Well that is my round up of sharing worship in and around Tantur. To end with maybe the oldest written prayer, and a beautiful blessing - why not click on 'The Lord Bless you and Keep you' - left.

Thanks for reading.
Helen x