Bringing you up-to-date

The summer was eventful in other ways. Sadly we lost one of our really good staff members, Nesreen, who passed away at a relatively young age after a heart operation. Nesreen was an Arab Christian from Nazareth and had worked for many years at the Hotel, and for her, it was more than a job. She was so much part of the place, that I would never have imagined her leaving of her own choice. She was very much a woman of faith, and that makes such a difference. I found her incredibly supportive, and we are all quite devastated by her death.

On a happier note, I moved house during the summer. I had lived in a very nice, modern, open-plan apartment with lots of space. Many would have loved to live there, but it wasn’t ‘me’, and I never really felt at home there. I think I have been too used to living in manses with their ‘decaying grandeur’. Anyway, the Church owns a building nearer to the church and hotel, which has now been renovated, and I have moved into the flat on the upper floor, which has ‘character’, views and a wonderful balcony – what more could one ask for. I had happy memories of Yakfie (the name of the house) from my time as a volunteer, so am absolutely thrilled to be living there. My previous flat had been in a commercial area, surrounded by roads and alarms (which rang continually through the night). Here, I have neighbours and also peace and quiet (apart from the occasional noise of a party on the beach) and even a large garden. I had better discover some green fingers soon! Though there is a scheme in Tiberias where ex-prisoners learn gardening, and we are hoping to employ them.

I am in Scotland (from the end of October) for just under six weeks. However, the Moderator will be visiting Israel and Palestine later in December, so I will need to be back in time to prepare for that!

Gaza

In the summer I visited Gaza, albeit only for a day. I had gone with lots of preconceptions, thinking that I would be entering a war-zone with destroyed buildings all around. There may very well be evidence of destruction, but not where we went in Gaza City. In fact, it just seemed like a normal, rather dilapidated town. What did strike me was that there were people everywhere, and Gaza is the most densely populated place on earth. Sadly it probably has the highest unemployment rate of anywhere on earth as well, as it has little industry. One person commented that most people are at university, because there is nothing else to do!

We had gone to visit several projects supported by Church of Scotland, including ante-natal clinics run by the Near East Council of Churches and a hospital run by the Anglican Church. The Christian population of Gaza is very small, so these institutions are very much run for the needs of those who are unconnected with the church.


Photo from http://www.atfaluna.net/


We finished our day, by visiting the Atfaluna School for Deaf Children, which is housed in a beautiful building paid for by German partners, and we were amazed by the high standard of all the furnishings and education materials. Because of the dire employment prospects in Gaza, especially for those who have a disability, Atfaluna employ former pupils to make furniture, carpets and crafts, which are then sold (including, I believe, in the Hadeel shop in Edinburgh).

All in all, it was an interesting visit, not least to be made aware of the sufferings of those living in Gaza with the regular disruption of electricity and food supplies, all of which are delivered through Israel.

Peace Garden

Our Peace Pole had become quite a familiar sight, propped up in the back corner of the church, but all that changed last Tuesday when workmen from Tu’ran arrived and proceeded to dig a hole in the garden, and by lunchtime the Pole was duly cemented into the ground. A few of us were meeting for a bible study, and we were caught by surprise by the speed of the work, but it is wonderful that it is finally in the ground with its message of ‘Let peace prevail on earth’ in the four languages: Arabic, English, Hebrew and Russian. Interestingly, as the workmen dug the whole, they discovered a one mil coin, inscribed Palestine (In the three languages), 1939. Not valuable, but fascinating to speculate how it ended up in the garden. Was a schoolchild reprimanded for losing it?

On Sunday we had a dozen people at the service, from Seattle and London, Germany and Holland, so we dedicated the peace pole and cracked open some sparkling red wine (which proceeded to splash over my white cassock!). The official dedication of the garden will be later in the year.

Fanatics

The BBC must have recently aired a programme in Britain set in one of the settlements on the West Bank, featuring religious fanatics. People must think that Israel is full of extremists, and yes, there are quite a few about.

However, so many people simply want to live at peace with one another. I was chatting to one of our newer workers at the Scots Hotel, who has just finished a 3 year stint in the army, after school. Interestingly, he said that what the army had taught him was that everyone was equal, regardless of ethnic group or religion, and that you just had to be open and treat everyone the same. I don’t think he would see eye to eye with a fanatic from the settlements! One of the joys of the Hotel is the make-up of the staff, with Jew and Moslem, Christian and Druze all working closely together, a paradigm for what could be.

New starts

At long last the rains came in January, turning Galilee green, though not quite filling the Lake unfortunately. The houses here are built for the long hot summers, so when the temperatures drop, it feels very cold indeed in the house. It is only when you go out, with several layers on, that you discover that it is actually a pleasant Spring Day!

January also saw the departure of two good friends from the Scots' Hotel in Tiberias. Sad, as I related well to them, but at the same time I am happy that they are moving on to better positions. In hotels people are always moving on, and you just have to get used to it. However, new people also come, and January brought a new general manager to the Hotel. Peter is German, but has lived in Israel for 16 years and is married with two children. He has already made a positive impact on the Hotel, and I am enjoying working with him. In many ways, the last several months have been difficult without a manager, and I have spent more time at the Hotel trying to be supportive. We were, however, very fortunate in having our accountant Shaul as acting manager; I think his wife will be glad to see more of him now.



The Scots' Hotel, Tiberias



The Galilee Society

After my years in Africa where I had known so many people who had either died from AIDS or were living positively with it, it has been strange to come to Israel and Palestine, where it is not so prevalent and where there is a lesser degree of awareness.

The Galilee Society at Shefa Amr is an NGO, whose HIV/AIDS programme is supported by Church of Scotland, and recently they held a seminar for school counsellors and school nurses to highlight HIV/AIDS and to explore the various challenges faced in talking to youngsters about it, especially in the Arab community, where there is a certain shyness over health issues.

I was impressed by the commitment of the participants and also by their readiness to engage with the AIDS issue. The seminar was organised by Mohammad Khatib, who heads the Health Justice department of the Society, and he also talked to me about a new project regarding awareness of breast cancer among women in the Arab community. The percentage of Arab women with such cancer is smaller than in Israeli society as a whole, but mortality rates are higher, because they fail to take the necessary tests quickly enough. An informative DVD has been brought out by the Galilee Society, including a ‘censored’ version for use when men are present.

Something which the Society is also having to address is the growing violence in the Arab community. The newspapers have been reporting on a number of family feuds which have resulted in the deaths of young people (a bit like Renaissance Italy). On trying to explain the underlying causes for this violence, one lady told me, ‘We do not know who we are. Are we Arab or Palestinian or Israeli? We keep hearing different voices saying one or the other’. Part of it is coping with being a minority in the land, but equally the Israeli Jews have to cope with being a minority in the Middle East.

Hotel Outing

In September over 40 of the staff at the Hotel went on a day’s outing to visit the other institutions run by the Church of Scotland.

First stop was Tabeetha School, where the young children sang for us and where Antony Short, the Head, was able to explain the ethos behind the school. At least one of the managers was set to enrol his daughter - if only the school were nearer Tiberias!

Then we moved on to Jerusalem, and it was an eye-opener to see the guest-house and to experience the special atmosphere there. Rev George Shand took us round the church, which again impressed everyone.

After lunch we went into the Old City, where we visited sites associated with the various faiths, walking along the Via Dolorosa and ending up at the Western Wall with views of the Dome of the Rock and El-Asqa Mosque inbetween. Interestingly, my Moslem and Jewish colleagues found the Church of the Holy Sepulchre too lax in allowing people to enter who were ‘inappropriately’ dressed (e.g. in shorts).

Finally at nearly 9 o’clock at night our bus drew into Tiberias. A good day, away from the routine of the Hotel and an opportunity to view the ‘larger picture’ of the church’s work in Israel & Palestine. Also a chance to be together in the various holy places of our faiths, which was important.

Baptism and Mourning

Rather excitingly, we had a baptism on Sunday evening. Given the small numbers of the congregation here, it is not something which happens regularly – in fact, no-one can remember the last time a baby was baptised here! However, Adeck Mba, the father, is a professional footballer, playing for one of the teams here in Israel – and is a Presbyterian from Cameroon (The Basle Mission were active in that part of west Africa), his mother being an elder. So it was a privilege to baptise little Riya. Also a relief that there was a reasonable congregation of 18 there to witness it and offer support.

Having witnessed at the baptism the joy of new life a baby brings, a very good friend of mine from the hotel, Moshe (photo right), has just been through a very different experience, with the death of his father. Jewish burials take place usually within a day of the death happening different from Africa, where we often waited for days for family to arrive), after which the family hold shiva. This means that the family sit in the funeral house for 7 days. Mirrors are covered, and the family sit on the floor (or very low seating). They also rip their clothes as a sign of mourning. During shiva, a memorial candle is kept alight, and friends call for short visits. Men are not allowed to shave or have haircuts for 30 days, while women do not wear makeup.(At the hotel, the male staff are supposed to shave every day, but Moshe has been exempted for a month). After 7 days, a person can resume work, but in Moshe’s case, work at the hotel is combined with prayers three times a day (early morning at 5.30, late afternoon and evening) – and in Judaism, you need at least 10 people to pray, so it is not a case of rattling through some prayers in private, but of going to a synagogue for at least an hour.

Mourning for a parent actually lasts for a year, and during that time, the mourner is not supposed to go to parties or entertainment, nor is able to invite anyone for meals. Even music is avoided. Of course, many people do not necessarily keep all of this, but the religious would, and Moshe comes from quite a religious family.

Weaving women, Passover and Easter

Kafr Manda is a sizeable Arab village in Western Galilee and is home to a basketry project, in which 9 Arab women, the oldest 53 and the youngest 22, weave baskets. In doing so, they keep alive an ancient craft. The project is run by Sindyanna, a fair trade organisation, which works mostly with the Arab community, but which seeks to promote co-existence between the different groups in Israeli society. In fact, the next basketry course will have 10 participants, 5 Arab and 5 Jewish women, which I find exciting. Even as it is, the workforce is mixed. The project seeks to empower the women, providing them with employment and thereby with money, but also giving them a space away from their home environment where they can chat and share problems. The baskets themselves are works of art, all individual. Needless to say, I bought two for the church in Tiberias! The women also make lunch for groups, so anyone planning a trip to the Holy land should consider stopping off there!

Passover
The Monday night of Holy Week – but also this year the beginning of Passover (or Pesach, in Hebrew). I had been invited, along with two friends from Scotland, to the Seder meal at Kinneret kibbutz just south of Tiberias. It was a wonderful experience, with over 300 people of all ages gathered in the kibbutz dining hall. This was the 96th time the Seder had been celebrated at Kinneret, and different families had their own bits of the ‘liturgy’ to read, as the story of the Exodus and the liberation of the Israelites from Egypt was recited. All this was interspersed with singing led by a band of musicians. The walls were also decorated by paintings by one of the artists from the kibbutz, using the ‘Exodus’ theme.

I found it an incredibly moving experience and was struck by a sense of continuity with the past, both immediately (some of the readings were read by children of the first settlers on the kibbutz), but also realising that this meal had been celebrated for all these centuries. I was also struck by the strong sense of community and oneness on the kibbutz. As a Christian, I could identify strongly with the Passover, whose message of liberation from oppression has meant so much to churches throughout the world.

Easter
The scouts are an interdenominational group in the Arab town of Reine, and their band beat the drums and led the procession with banners at the Palm Sunday procession, where we moved from the Anglican church (our partners) to the Melkite (Greek Catholic) church to the Latin (Roman Catholic) church, waving our palms and olive branches. A meaningful occasion!

On Thursday, we will hold our feet-washing and communion service, while on Good Friday we will have a series of meditations, as we move around the hotel garden and down to the church, remembering all the events of the day. A dawn service and communion on top of the Migdal in the hotel garden on Easter morning will be the culmination of our activities.

I hope and pray that Easter will be a blessed and meaningful time for all of you, wherever you may be.

Meeting the Bedouins

I had an early start to join Clarence and Joan Musgrave & the visiting Guild group as they visited projects supported by the NGO, Rabbis for Human Rights, among the Bedouin of the Negev, the large desert region in the south of the country (turned green with the rain). In the morning we visited a Bedouin village, where we heard of the work of the Pre-Military Academy, which takes young people who have just completed school for a 10 month stint before they start their army service. Their presence seems to have made some difference in the village, in that some facilities had been provided and some women have been learning Hebrew, so they can communicate (though how many of the young people learned any Arabic is another matter), and the women could now read, for example, health pamphlets (which should have been provided in Arabic anyway, as an official language, but which rarely are). The young people from the Academy came from privileged backgrounds in the Centre of the country -unfortunately there didn’t seem to be any Arabs on the programme, but then not many Arabs do military service - and their interaction with the Bedouin had obviously had an impact on them, and I could see that they had had a positive mind-shift, appreciating more about minorities in Israel.

The men in the group were taken round the local primary school. The headteacher bemoaned the lack of resources, but it seemed a lot better to me than many schools in Zambia, so it is all relative. The Head himself was a local Bedouin, but most of the teachers seemed to come from the Arab communities in the Galilee, as few of the Bedouins seem to go in for teaching. Again young people from the ‘Academy’ teach some courses, and thus present a different view of Jewish Israelis to the Bedouin pupils, who are more likely to associate Israelis negatively with the police or army. I was certainly impressed by the young man who took us round and felt that, despite some initial reservations, that the programme was a positive one.

What the Bedouin are associated with is their hospitality, and the morning finished with a lunch of rice, potato and chicken from a communal dish.

Ulpan - my Hebrew lessons

The place where I go for my Hebrew lessons is also a centre for the neighbourhood, and last week I was invited to join a group of elderly people, who meet every day for tea and talk.

A group of handicapped children from a local school had come to act out how to prepare for the Shabbat meal. Many of the elderly people were obviously quite poor and came from the Sephardic community, Jews from Arab countries like Morocco or Yemen or Iraq, who often ended up in poorer jobs and were subtly discriminated against by the Ashkenazi (European) Jews.

Fortunately this situation has changed over the years, but there still seems to be a distinction between the various groups. Now there is another group, the Jews from the old Soviet Union, over a million of whom emigrated to Israel in the 1990s.

Half of my Ulpan class comprises of Russians who have never quite mastered Hebrew. Others come from Argentina, Hungary and France, along with a couple of Brits. Most are older than me and l have been in the country for far longer.

Haggis-tasting, parties ... and a room for quiet

Living in Israel/ Palestine is certainly very different from living in Zambia. In Zambia several months could pass before a visitor from Britain passed through, but in Tiberias it seems that people come every week, and always very interesting. Another difference is that here there are Burns Suppers! The other day I was called to the hotel to taste chef Oded’s haggis – artichoke stuffed with haggis, haggis in pastry, etc – and give it the OK. Only problem is that I don’t think I have tasted haggis for 16 years! The hotel supper is next week, but on the 22nd I was invited to another Burns Supper on a kibbutz. Coming from Ayrshire, I was a bit of an outsider, as almost all the others were from the Southside of Glasgow, and still had the accents to prove it.

On a miserably wet January evening, the staff party was held in one of the local restaurants. I went along thinking I would ‘show face’ for 30 minutes, then leave BUT it was so good I stayed almost till the end. I was so impressed by the strong sense of togetherness and camaraderie among the staff. They are a real mixture of Arab and Jew, Moslem and Christian and Druze, but cooperate (and party) so well together. Lots of eating and music, and the dancing was traditional dancing often occurring at Arab weddings, which was wonderful. A real celebration, and a thank-you to the staff for all their work through the year.

‘Migdal’ is the Hebrew word for ‘tower’, and we have now turned the tower in the herb garden (part of the old Ottoman town walls) into a Quiet Room for meditation and prayer. It is quite simple with whitewashed walls, but with a rich Turkish rug (well, made in Belgium) and some Ottoman-style tables and lots of shelves and alcoves for books and candles.

I am absolutely thrilled with it and will use it as my base at the hotel. Hopefully it will be used by people of all the Faith communities - though I am becoming very possessive of it!

Christmas Part Two!

Christmas seems never to end here! Last week, on 7th January, the Orthodox Christmas was celebrated, and I attended the service at Sakhnin. It was held in a new church they are building (memories of Zambia!), and they needed it, as I would estimate 350 people attended of all ages. Quite something, as technically it was a working day. It was a lesson in fashion, as everybody seemed to be in sharp suits and figure-hugging dresses. I felt distinctly informal in my sports jacket. Black was the predominant colour for both sexes. The service lasted for hours, but, as in Zambia, people were arriving at any time. After communion, everyone rushed to the back for the most wonderful cakes, leaving the poor priest finishing the service alone.

I was touched over Christmas and New Year by all the greetings of ‘Hag sameach’ or ‘Kol aam oul ento bkheer’ (happy holiday) by Jews and Moslems, and one of my high points was to receive a Christmas gift from Moshe and Tareq, two of the members of the hotel staff – one Jew and one Moslem (a plate with a picture of Santa and Rudolf in the snow. It is still up, while the other decorations have been taken down).

Another high point was being invited to the Baptist Church Christmas party in Haifa. Along with the bible quizzes (fortunately I was not part of a team, as I would have done very badly), there was the most wonderful Arab music and then a glorious spread of Arab food. Santa also appeared – and it seems that he plays a big role in the celebration of Christmas in the Arab communities.

At some point over Christmas, Galilee turned green – something to remember in the hot, arid months of summer. Amazingly while Europe freezes, Galilee glows with sunshine. Good for my guests at the weekend – Victor and Blessing from South Africa and Carol from the States, who have just finished the EAPPI programme, accompanying Palestinians on the west bank, as they sought to get through the checkpoints. A very different experience from mine, and I admire them tremendously. They have finished their three month stint, and a new team has just arrived. I feel I can offer hospitality away from their daily tensions.

Wishing everyone a good new year!

Christmas in Tiberias

Tiberias is one of the lowest places on earth. Coming from Nazareth, there is a sign proclaiming ‘Sea level’, after which the road rather dramatically plunges down about 650ft to the lakeshore. It means that it is often hot and muggy. Last Wednesday was an incredibly clear day, however, and Mount Hermon appeared so visibly to the North, covered with snow. It was so wonderful to look at – an early Christmas present. Certainly to be savoured, as the next few days were horribly dreich – cold, grey and wet!

Tiberias is, of course, a Jewish town, so you have to look very hard for any sign of Christmas (unlike Nazareth, where there are Christmas parades).The Scots Hotel is, however, rather tastefully decorated for Christmas, as are the church and manse – Joanna my elder came with a bootful of holly, ivy and pine-cones. At the church we began our Christmas services with Lessons and Carols on Sunday evening – interesting, as half the congregation were Jewish! On Christmas Eve, we’ll have a carol service, and it will be interesting to see who turns up to that. After it (or after the mulled wine at the end) we’ll join our friends at St Peter’s Fransciscan Church for a meal. There is a new priest who is very keen on ecumenical links. There will be a communion service on Christmas morning.

Christmas is about God’s commitment to humankind, and I continue to be touched by people’s commitment to justice issues. Yesterday I visited Sindyanna, a fair-trade organisation run from Cana in Galilee by a remarkable Jewish woman, Hadas, which seeks to empower the women from the local Arab villages. They market soap from Nablus, as well as local herbs and olive oil. They are also just about to open a visitors’ centre nearby, where women are involved in the most marvellous basketry, talk about their experiences and offer a ‘Palestinian’ lunch. A good place for tours!

Wishing everyone a peaceful and joyful Christmas and a blessed 2010.

Hanukkah

Hanukkah is a Jewish festival, celebrated in the middle of December, celebrating how the Temple light was miraculously kept alight, even though the oil had run out (from Macabees). In practice, most Israelis would light a candle each evening on the menorah for 8 days.

At my Hebrew class, we had to learn two songs about Hanukkah, and I was also invited to a Hanukkah party in the church. The school which meets above the Church is for the children of messianic believers (Jews who accept Jesus as the Messiah), so they held their party which included acting out a version of the story, and of course there was special food at the end. Most are part of the Peniel Fellowship which has 450 members.

Interestingly,many would not celebrate Christmas, and those who do, might not necessarily celebrate it in December, but in October!

HIV and Aids

I wear an Aids red ribbon on both my jackets, and it is amazing how many people here stop me and ask what it represents. It makes me aware of the difference between Israel and Africa. In Africa, the ribbon was everywhere and easily recognisable, and everyone was affected by Aids. In Israel/ Palestine it seems that it has a far lower profile.

In early December, just after World Aids Day, I travelled to Shafa Amr, arguably the 2nd biggest Arab town in Israel (after Nazareth), to visit the Galilee Society, whose HIV and Aids work is supported by the Church of Scotland’s HIV/AIDS Project.

The Galilee Society is actually one of the longest established NGO in the Arab community, and I was amazed and impressed to discover a modern building with superb facilities, including several labs and a staff of over 40. The Society has several different wings, including research (into wastewater, for example), environmental concerns and data processing. Their HIV and Aids project is part of the health justice wing, run by Mohammed Khatib. There is no hospital in Shafa Amr, so most patients prefer to go to the hospitals in Nazareth, which are run by the churches (like the Edinburgh Medical Mission Society hospital), though the government hospitals in Haifa are also very good. One problem is that many of the medical pamphlets are written only in Hebrew, and many of the Palestinian women especially do not necessarily read Hebrew, so miss out on advice.

The HIV pamphlets are all in Arabic. Numbers in the Palestinian community who are infected are relatively small - only 10 new cases in the last year - but that doesn’t mean to say that we can relax. Mohammed and his team go out, for example, to schools to raise awareness and try to train young people as peer educators. They recognise that young people in the Palestinian community are more open than ever before to outside (particularly Western) influences and thus more open to infection. They also continue to meet resistance, as the stigma of being HIV+ is still great in Israel.

Travels in the West Bank

Route 6 takes on a familiar hue when you have been up and down it a few times. It was obvious on the map which road we were supposed to take, but actually finding it was a different matter. Maybe a symbol of how difficult it is to access the West Bank from Israel because of the ‘Wall’. The ‘wall’ is sometimes a fence, and sometimes a wall, but always excludes. Before the wall was erected, thousands of people from the West Bank were able to go into Israel every day for employment, but with the wall, numbers have been cut to a tiny dribble, and always with the uncertainty of whether your work permit will be removed. It was ironic that we were making this journey at the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

We were making for Jayous, where the Church of Scotland Guild is supporting a crèche, which allows mothers the opportunity to have time to work whilst their children are cared for. Jayous is termed a village, but was far bigger than I imagined. After visiting the crèche, we experienced Palestinian hospitality with a wonderful lunch.

After lunch, we were taken down near the checkpoint which is the only way through the ‘wall’ for inhabitants of Jayous, so they can have access to their some of their fields and olive groves. An Israeli jeep was heard approaching (people develop a keen sense of hearing), so we had to retreat back to the village. There is a group of EAPPI (Ecumenical Accompaniement Programme in Palestine and Israel)volunteers at Jayous. This is a World Council of Churches scheme, whereby volunteers from all over the world (the four we met were from South Africa, Sweden, England and Norway) spend 3 months, accompanying people to the checkpoint and observing, helping to minimise any abuses. The EAPPI volunteers are also a symbol of the World Church standing with the Palestinian people. We sat down with the volunteers for a cup of tea, but almost immediately there was the sound of Israeli jeeps roaring through the town - and then a shot is fired... I think it was just into the air, but it destroys the peace.

It is difficult for me to explain what I have seen to my Jewish friends in Tiberias. Some refuse point blank to go into any conversation about politics, because they know it will prove divisive. Others struggle to justify, saying that the wall has stopped the suicide bombings, which had created such fear among the Israeli population. However, for the people of Jayous, they were unanimous over lunch that they looked forward to a day when everyone would live together peacefully in one state (but who would have the power?). ‘And the lion will lie down with the lamb...’ ?

The name Nablus conjured up to me pictures of the Intifada, and it was with some trepidation that I set off to join friends from Jerusalem, especially as we would drive in cars with Israeli number plate. My fears proved groundless, as it seemed the easiest thing in the world to get there. Interestingly, there were two Israeli women standing at the checkpoint into the city, monitoring any possible abuses – it was good to see. We joined Sheena Boyle from Prestwick, who is involved with a charity, Children of Amal, which seeks to use music therapy with the children in the refugee camps, who are often traumatised by curfews or by the security forces blowing up houses in search of militants.

We were in Balata Refugee camp, which has 30,000 people living in it and is in fact one of the most densely populated places on the planet. The children took it in turns to play the various musical instruments and also to conduct. Then at one point some music was played (In fact, it was ‘Out of Africa’) and the children had to let their imagination run riot. This has apparently led in the past to quite harrowing accounts, but on this occasion they seemed to imagine trips to far away, beautiful countries which. in its own way, was quite sad.

The following day I had been invited out in the evening for a Shabbat meal by Lavi, who works at the hotel and who lives with his wife in a caravan by the lake. It was quite a bohemian setting and a thrill to listen to 5 young Israelis talk and put the world to right. I felt enormously privileged to be part of the gathering. Yet, such a different world from Balata camp.

Incense, icons and co-operation

The Sunday service in Tiberias is an evening one, so it allows me the opportunity to worship in other churches in the morning. Last week I went along with a friend, Margaret, to her Greek Orthodox church of St George in Sakhnin, a large Arab town, 45 minutes drive from Tiberias. Sakhnin is famous in Israel for its football team, who are the only Arab team in the Israeli premier league (There is a massive stadium, built with money from Qatar rather than Israeli government cash).

The orthodox service is very different from your run-of-the-mill Scottish service. Like in many churches I was used to in Africa, the women sat in a different part of the church from the men. Every space on the walls was covered with icons, and there was wonderful chanting throughout. To me, there was a real sense of the presence of God. The wonderful thing was that all generations were present at worship, with the young especially participating in the processions, etc. A strong sense of identity, I imagine.

After the service was over, the priest, Abuna Saleh Khouri, invited us to his home for lunch (the man sitting next to me had also invited me – people are very hospitable). The priesthood of the Orthodox church in Sakhnin is a family affair, with Abuna Saleh the 6th generation of his family to be priest there. He had been a teacher before his father retired. Interestingly, Abuna Saleh’s son, Fadi, was there, leading the choir, and I wondered if he would also one day be the priest? He has just returned from a 3 year course in Pennsylvania and is an optometrist in Tiberias, travelling from Sakhnin each day.

Sakhnin is a predominately Moslem town, with less than 2000 Christians (Orthodox and Catholic) out of a population of 27,000. However, there seems to be a sense of togetherness, which isn’t always the case in the villages of Galilee, with Moslems contributing towards the massive new church the Orthodox are building, while the Christians bought flowers and organised a feast for those coming out of the mosque at the end of Ramadan. They seem to take a pride in working together, and the priest is shown the same respect as the imam from the mosque.

After lunch, we went back into the church, where the Sunday School was on – not so many children, as families are still involved in the olive harvest, but maybe about 20.

Encounters with some saints

Almost a month has now passed since I arrived in Tiberias, though in many ways it seems far, far longer. A good sign, as I feel very much settled here. What’s more the unbearably hot weather which has been characteristic of my stay here so far has ended, and the heavens have opened with rain. Not just that, but the wind has been strong, rattling the windows and banging doors all night! The last few years has seen the level of the Sea of Galilee fall drastically, as there has not been much rain, so people are really excited, as a several inches have been added on over the weekend. Maron the reservation manager at the hotel, has linked the weather to my coming, but I think he is just being kind.

I am gradually getting into a routine, with my Ulpan lessons a priority – Ulpan is my Hebrew class, and it is going really well, though with just too much homework. I do try to practise, but inevitably people answer back in English! I always try to be at the hotel, chatting to guests and staff. At the moment I find that I need the staff more than they need me, just to help me feel more rooted here, but saying that, I like the staff immensely and find them incredibly welcoming.

I also spend some time at the office down at the church, which is situated on the road down to the waterfront. I like to keep the church door open, and it is amazing how many people look in. Some are locals who are just curious, but many come in specifically because it is a church. One was a young woman, fashionably dressed, who entered the church and fell prostrate in front of the cross, and stayed in this position for several minutes. Later she told me that she was Russian living in Tel Aviv (one million Russians have emigrated to Israel in recent years: many are Jewish, but some are Christian with a Jewish connection in the family). She was married with a baby, and she said she missed church so much!

Last Sunday, immediately after the service, a young Palestinian couple walked in and sat in a pew. They had been living in Chicago for the last few years, but have now decided to move back to Israel. She was obviously pregnant, and they asked for prayers. Again, a couple of days ago, it was a Japanese girl, working on a kibbutz, who came in. Her boyfriend is Jewish (and from a very religious family) and she needed to talk to him about her faith, because she is a Christian. She was delighted to find a church. Just a few examples, but in these and many other cases, they seemed ‘holy moments’, somehow charged with God’s presence.

It is a different kind of ministry here, in that I talk with so many people, whom I will never see again. Yet to me, there have been many memorable encounters, and I pray that I will somehow be used!

Happily I had my largest congregation to date yesterday (1st Nov), with 40 there. Again, because I left the church door open on the Sunday afternoon, and a few Dutch people came in, found out that there would be a service, so phoned their friends to come (which accounted for just over half the number). It did through me into a panic, as I had to rush to get more bread for communion (it was a bit like Loaves and Fishes, especially with the wine) and print more orders of service. We also need to invest in more hymnbooks! Still, a nice position to be in.

Wee photo gallery

The Scottish flag flying over Galilee. A view over the Scottie garden. The small turret is part of the Ottoman city walls - I would love to turn it into a small chapel, but we'll see!

The view from my balcony, looking over the southern part of the Sea of Galilee to the Golan.

Tiberias is not the most attractive of towns,but has an earthiness which is appealing.