Seeker

Separation by agreement on equal terms, like the boundary wall between our garden and our neighbours' can be useful. But enforced separation on unequal terms can only be called 'apartheid' and lead to further injustice. When the Berlin Wall came down 21 years ago I felt a great sense of hope that the 'Cold War' in Europe was finally thawing. People previously separated were coming together. It's so depressing to realize how many new walls of separation have since been built around the world. Constructing separation walls between people is now a world-wide growth industry. Being confronted with the wall around the city of Bethlehem was a truly shocking experience for me last month, even though I'd expected to see it. I managed to photograph the wall, but not one of the many watchtowers which chillingly reminded me of a visit to Auschwitz a few years ago. I've wanted to write about the wall shown in this photo since returning f...

More than 3 weeks after returning from the Holy Land, this is my 3rd post-pilgrimage reflection. I said it would take months to unpack!  Here's a door, unpacked from my camera. I'm now trying to paint it in watercolour. I want to include some children, but finding this hard. Doors are powerful symbols. They've always fascinated me, as I've mentioned in  a previous post here and also here . This door, the 'Door of Humility' is the entrance to the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem. I took this photo while listening to our guide Ghassan (a Palestinian Christian) explaining why the current entrance is so small, though the former were huge. His gentle words still ring in my mind, "now only a young child may enter freely - like the baby of Bethlehem". Then we entered stooping, as most adults have to if you want to avoid a painful encounter with the stone lintel. I thought later about Jesus' words before he took children in his arms and blesse...

What is a pilgrim? Someone on a pilgrimage? Through life or to places of special meaning?  Pilgrimage involves a significant journey that may be hard or long. It's travel but not tourism.   Pilgrims may follow a guide but are open to the unexpected on the way. Bishop Alan makes an interesting comment about the difference between being a pilgrim and a tourist in his post Two Roads to Remembrance . He describes 'resonant remembrance' (in contrast to 'contemplative remembrance') as messy: "You put yourself through a routine with your wits around you, but floating on the surface, so that a stray thought or impression can resonate against something in you, and bring you up against something you thought you had forgotten all about, but can now be understood in a new light." Putting myself through a routine devised by others (the programme for a pilgrimage to the Holy Land) freed me from responsibility of deciding what to do. It allowed me to be enter ...

Things I didn't do on Diocese of Oxford Pilgrimage to Holy Land: I didn't buy a drink in the 'Lowest Bar in the World". I didn't sink in the Dead Sea. I tried and failed as did others as you can see here . I didn't run round the walls of Jerusalem (or anywhere else) early in the morning. I didn't catch fish in the sea of Galilee. I didn't get re-baptised in the River Jordan. Things I did do on Diocese of Oxford Pilgrimage to Holy Land: I did drink a lot - mostly water because of the heat. I did stand in shallow Dead Sea water, with great difficulty from a floating position. I did take hundreds of pictures of walls of all sorts, some of them shocking. I did sing the British National Anthem standing in a fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee. (How bizarre is that?) I did renew baptismal vows at the River Jordan, was annointed with oil of chrism and then had a paddle in the water. A full immersion would have been more cooling. I've unp...