Today I wandered the Old City in all its tragic grandeur, “where history and eternity meet.” The eclectic jumble: good Moslems in hijabs going about their business; raucous Christian pilgrim groups along the Via Dolorosa; Christian monks in their brown cassocks, orthodox Jewish men with their payots (side locks) and tallits (prayer shawls); hawkers hawking everything under the sun.
I was disturbed by all the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) soldiers everywhere—keeping a restive populace subdued. But then, Jerusalem has always had a restive populace! In his homily this evening the Dean of St. George’s Cathedral said that “Jerusalem is broken. Jerusalem has always been broken.” The challenge is to find God in this brokenness. I’m looking forward to it. –Peter Brownrigg
The Old City
Peter Brownrigg at the Damascus Gate
The Rev. Ann Gillespie in the Moslem Quarter
