Sunday morning here in Jerusalem, the sun is shining and it is lovely and warm. After breakfast we caught the first bus to the Mount of Olives and specifically to the Augusta Victoria Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Ascension. This is a really beautiful church with magnificent arches and amazing acoustics.
We had formed a 20 person choir with Jim and Jean and took part in the service singing "Peace is Flowing Like a River". All in all a really great celebration, then we were back in the buses headed to the West Bank and the Jordan River Baptismal Site.
Interesting - you need to pass through a military zone to get to the site. At that point the Jordan River is a very narrow slow moving rather dirty stream. In former times - about a hundred or so years ago it was a very fast flowing and wide river. Not now, the water has been used for agriculture and to support a growing population. Despite the state of the river a few of us walked into the water up to our knees. There was another group there who went in all the way - that really didn't appeal to any of us.
We gathered and sang a couple of songs then back in the buses to head to the Jerico Intercontinental Hotel for lunch.
This is a really large complex, a big hotel with a spa and swimming pools. We learned that it was once a casino, but that was shut down by the government.
After lunch we gathered in the conference room to begin the celebrations of 25 years of Palestinian Liberation Theology. The proceedings were broken by two delightful presentations, one by a choir from the Episciple School in the West Bank. Sabeel held this part of the session here so this choir could sing for us. As they are Palestinian children in the West Bank - they are unable to travel to Jerusalem. We were also entertained by a group who played beautiful Arab music.
Back to Jerusalem and the Notre Dame Centre for supper and then more celebrations.
Sunday morning here in Jerusalem, the sun is shining and it is lovely and warm. After breakfast we caught the first bus to the Mount of Olives and specifically to the Augusta Victoria Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Ascension. This is a really beautiful church with magnificent arches and amazing acoustics. 
We had formed a 20 person choir with Jim and Jean and took part in the service singing "Peace is Flowing Like a River". All in all a really great celebration, then we were back in the buses headed to the West Bank and the Jordan River Baptismal Site. 
Interesting - you need to pass through a military zone to get to the site. At that point the Jordan River is a very narrow slow moving rather dirty stream. In former times - about a hundred or so years ago it was a very fast flowing and wide river. Not now, the water has been used for agriculture and to support a growing population. Despite the state of the river a few of us walked into the water up to our knees. There was another group there who went in all the way - that really didn't appeal to any of us.
We gathered and sang a couple of songs then back in the buses to head to the Jerico Intercontinental Hotel for lunch. 
This is a really large complex, a big hotel with a spa and swimming pools. We learned that it was once a casino, but that was shut down by the government.
After lunch we gathered in the conference room to begin the celebrations of 25 years of Palestinian Liberation Theology. The proceedings were broken by two delightful presentations, one by a choir from the Episciple School in the West Bank. Sabeel held this part of the session here so this choir could sing for us. As they are Palestinian children in the West Bank - they are unable to travel to Jerusalem. We were also entertained by a group who played beautiful Arab music. 
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