April 20, 2003

Marthame and Fr. Firas in front of the Latin Church.

We arrived at the Latin Church for Palm Sunday celebrations. The ecumenical compromise here, and in many other areas of the West Bank, is to celebrate Christmas on the Western calendar and Easter on the Eastern. Some times, like two years ago, Easter lands on the same day anyway. Last year, there was a considerable amount of time between the two seasons. This year, they're a week apart, so Holy Week begins today here.

The Scouts lead the Palm Sunday processional.

Children in the village Palm Sunday processional.

The tradition has been for many years to have an ecumenical procession around town, stopping at each of the churches so that they will worship together. This year, there is no Anglican representation, it having been six months since a priest led worship in Zababdeh. But it was a pleasure to re-welcome the Melkites to the mix for the first time in some eighteen years. The Scouts have been training for weeks in preparation for Holy Week, and today they got to show their stuff, leading the way with flags, drums, and trumpets. The adorable kids followed close behind with their elaborately-decorated palm branches, then the rest of the village, singing as they went. We stopped by the Anglican church to leave a symbolic palm branch - the bells were rung and the doors were open, but the congregation soon dispersed, sadly. We worshiped at the Latin Church, all in all a wonderful celebration and a great way to ring in our return to Zababdeh a few weeks ago.

After worship, Elizabeth went home to rest and Marthame went to join a second Orthodox procession; the congregation of the Orthodox church was part of the ecumenical festivities in the morning, but the long, elaborate liturgy of the eucharist prevented Fr. Thomas from joining the group before worship. So he led another procession after mass as well. What a full, exhilarating day.