Leaving the College and reflections on my trip so far

28 April, 2010


I woke up at 2.15am, to get ready for the sherut (shared taxi) to Ben Gurion airport, which was collecting me at 2.45am. Dear Sharline, one of the expat members of staff, was there to make sure I got my sherut (thank you, Sharline!). After a little while spent in Jerusalem picking up others, the sherut took us straight through to the airport, and I was fortunate also to go straight through the Police checks. I caught a 7am flight to Athens, and then waited in Athens airport for my connecting flight to Thessaloniki that afternoon.

During my waits at Ben Gurion and Athens airports and at the bus station, I had time to reflect on my time in Jordan and Israel. In a few words, it has been a huge privilege and a wonderful and totally memorable experience to be in ‘the land of the Holy One’ as Bp Suheil calls this area. I found the College staff – both expats and locals – to be really excellent, and they contributed significantly to the great time I had. They operate in a difficult environment in Jerusalem and manage to cope with new people coming over and over again. I would recommend St George’s College to anyone who is interested in the course they are planning to take and who is fit and well enough to do a fair bit of walking.

Originally, I hadn’t planned to do the Holy Week and Easter course, ‘Risen with Christ’, but it was at least as memorable as ‘the Bible and its Setting’. What a time to be in Jerusalem! I am sure that I will never forget the walk to the Mount of Olives on Maundy Thursday night, the Armenian burial liturgy on Good Friday, and the Ethiopian service on Easter Eve. And other highlights were events in the Parvis and the Church of the Resurrection – the foot-washing, the procession on Good Friday and the Holy Fire ceremony. And the experience of being in Jerusalem and visiting a variety of churches there was totally memorable.

In ‘the Bible and its Setting’ the high point was probably the time spent in Galilee. Other highlights were my visit to the grotto in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the talk of the young Jewish man, Yakir Englander, who really did seem an outstanding individual.

I was also very glad that I went to Jordan, where Jerash, Petra, Madaba and the baptism site were all highlights of my trip. It was great also, between the courses, to visit Massada and the Yad Vashem holocaust memorial, both of which made a deep impression on me.



I expected to find the Israeli army presence and personnel difficult at times, but as it happened, I found that I was always treated with politeness by them. (I realise, of course, that people of Palestinian ethnicity regularly have a different experience.) I also admired the restraint of the Israeli police in the Church of the Resurrection at the Holy Fire ceremony. I came away thinking that it is good for the Jews to have their own homeland, but the outstanding issue is how Palestinians can also be truly at home in this land, or in a separate Palestinian state. I sensed that the bad treatment of the Palestinians is a poisonous legacy that is making, and will continue to make, the nation of Israel sick, until some better way of relating to one another is found.



So that’s my summary. I often found myself amazed to be physically present at the places where so much happened that is so precious to me. It was a truly great blessing.