December 8, 2002

The Advent wreath at the Lutheran Church of the Reedemer, Jerusalem

It has been a long time since we've been able to worship in English, so we joined the English-speaking congregation at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, just around the corner from the Holy Sepulchre. It was the first time either of us had been here since a Maundy Thursday service last year prior to the massive Israeli West Bank invasion which is still on-going. Today is the second Sunday in Advent, and we were asked to participate in the liturgy by lighting the candles. It seems that many of the folks we know from NGOs and the like frequent Redeemer on Sunday, and it was good to reconnect.

This stamp is used to mark the dough in the eucharistic bread prior to baking in Eastern liturgy

We stopped by the Melkite Patriarchate and our friend Fr. Paul helped us locate the item Deacon Firas had been asking for: a wooden stamp used by the Eastern churches in the baking of eucharistic bread. This is anticipation of his ordination this coming Saturday. The symbolism is thick - a brochure we picked up along the way describes it well.

After lunch, Elizabeth settled in for several hours of digital television as Marthame began the trek back to Zababdeh. Sharing the taxi were three nurses from Zababdeh who work in the French Hospital in Jerusalem and a woman from Jenin and her children. Due to this make-up, there was little trouble at checkpoints, even passing through the usually impossible Tamasiih (crocodile) checkpoint, so named after the settler crocodile farm nearby.

Artwork from the worship bulletin at Jerusalem’s Lutheran Church of the Redeemer

Tayasir checkpoint meant a long, long wait - forty minutes before the soldier would even summon our car forward, though we were first in line. As we waited, jeeps, busses, and other military vehicles headed into the checkpoint. There is another Israeli camp just inside the barrier, but there was so much personnel headed in it looked like another invasion was planned.

We made it to Tubas, which had been closed earlier in the day but was now open. As we passed the Greek Orthodox church, we saw four jeeps and a number soldiers at an intersection. They didn't stop us, but watched us closely, clearly focusing on another part of town. This is unusual behavior, and it seems that we have returned to pre-Oslo times in full where the situation throughout the West Bank is simply that of Hebron's Old City multiplied.

Marthame had barely put his bags down when he heard the Anglican bells ringing. He made his way to the church, expecting to see Fr. Hosam. Instead, it was Fr. Zahi who had come down from Nazareth for the wedding of a woman from Jalame to a young man from Zababdeh. Fr. Hosam was stuck in Nablus, as usual given the situation there. This morning, he tried to leave Nablus along with employees of the Anglican Hospital, but they turned back after they were fired at by Israeli soldiers near the edge of the city. The groom's family called Fr. Zahi who was able to come at the last minute from Nazareth.

Marthame spent the rest of the evening delivering the goods he had picked up in Jerusalem to the various Zababdeh clergy.