May 22, 2001

Abouna Boutros from Basra’s Syrian Orthodox Church.

We had one last stop in Basrah before hitting the road, to visit the Syrian Orthodox Church and its priest Abuna Boutros Ibrahim. He and Pastor Gilbert are quite close, evidence of a different spirit of ecumenism at work in this land. But both churches have seen the devastation of the two wars. Emigration after 1991 was particularly devastating - the Presbyterian Church had, in 1978, over 100 families. Now there are fewer than 30, but they all gathered for worship with us last night.

Some of the few remaining Marsh Arabs.

As we made the long drive back to Baghdad, we saw the remnants of the Marsh Arab community. Their way of life basically unchanged for 6000 years, the Marsh Arabs have had to move away from their ancestral lands as they have been almost totally drained. What's 6000 years, anyway?

The reconstructed ancient ziggurat at Ur.

The reconstructed interior of the ziggurat at Ur.

Cuneiform at Ur.

We got a partial answer as we headed to Ur of the Chaldees, the birthplace of Abraham. We were not met with any protesters, like the rest of the conferees were, but instead with blasts of hot wind (note to self: plan historical desert visits at high noon on purpose). We climbed the impressive ziggurat (originally built in around 2000 BC), saw its cuneiform signatures, and visited what is purported to be Abraham's restored house. It was from here that Abraham's father took him and Sarah to Haran, near the border of Syria and Turkey, before he headed to Nablus and Hebron. We now have a very real appreciation of how REALLY FAR that is. Abraham's link with the three monotheistic faiths of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism was particularly resonant for us, as we read Genesis 11-12's description of his travels from Ur to Canaan.

We returned to our Baghdad hotel (that darn toilet paper shortage!), where Elizabeth and a retired pastor in our delegation (getting ready to head off to work in Kyrgyzstan) went in search of dates - the best in the Middle East, we are told.