March 10, 2003

Marthame and a friend from Zababdeh who works in Nazareth as a nurse made their way to Jalame this morning. Our Israeli-side ride had heard that Jalame was open and was willing to give it a shot. Sure enough, he made it. At the checkpoint, the soldier took the driver's ID and wrote down his name and vehicle registration information. As for Marthame, he looked at him and said, "You're a priest? OK." He didn't even check the paperwork of the West Bankers in the van (all with valid permissions, of course).

Marthame teaching Church history in Ibillin, Israel, with translation help from Fr. Hatem.

Students in Marthame’s Church history course.

Marthame's class was good, setting the stage for Martin Luther's advent - corruption in the church, battles between church and state, the beginnings chaos in Europe and local control in Germany. There's no parallel for the European Reformation in the Eastern Church, and thus little awareness of what really happened. We periodically get local observations which sum up Reformation history as, "Martin Luther just decided to make his own church." What's amazing, though, is that Marthame is teaching Reformation history in a Catholic institution!

He spent the evening relaxing with our Scottish friends in Shefa'amer talking politics and theology. So much for an early evening.