On the Way to Nazareth
We were up early on Sunday morning, September 14th, for the bus to drive us northward toward Nazareth where we would stay for three nights with the Sisters of Nazareth (a Roman Catholic order originating from France and founding a community in Nazareth in the mid 1800's). This meant leaving the West Bank areas altogether and driving through the area of the country referred to as "Israel proper," the largest Arab Israeli city of which is Nazareth.
There are an estimated 1.7 million Arab Palestinian Israelis; they have 8 representatives in the Israeli government out of 120 members. Think of these numbers as compared to the population of Palestinians (who do not have Israeli citizenship) on the West Bank where there are 7.5 million Arabs. Unless one is able to be born in Israel proper or gain Israeli citizenship, traveling outside of the West Bank is very, very challenging. Israeli Jews must do a period of compulsory service in the Israeli army out of high school, 3 years for men and 2 years for women. However, for Arab Israeli citizens, military service is optional. There are 2.5 million Jews living in Israel proper and those who live in the West Bank live in the illegally constructed settlement areas which are walled and fenced off from Palestine. One of the ways to think about the West Bank is like an encroaching sea of Israeli settlements creating decreasing and isolated island communities of Palestine. Palestinians living on one island cannot travel easily if at all from one Palestinian area to another on the West Bank because of hundreds of Israeli check points which limit access for anyone without an Israeli ID.
Traveling through Israel proper, there is not the same tension at all as there is in the West Bank, and the quality of life is as one might find in the cities and suburbs of the United States. You can find anything you need easily, the roads are well maintained highways and excellent health care is excellent and unbiasedly available to everyone.
Our travel northward toward Nazareth essentially followed the ancient route of the Via Maris trade road, which moved merchant goods from Egypt through all of Mesopotamia. Our first stop was Caesarea Maritima on the Mediterranean where we explored the Roman ruins of Herod the Great's there. In Acts 9:22 and 10, Paul stayed in Caesarea with a tanner named Simon and was imprisoned in the city from 58AD-60AD. As Roman Procurator of Palestine, Pilate lived in a palace he had built at Caesarea. Given the idealic setting on the sea, he probably would not have liked his annual departure to spend time in and near Jerusalem for part of the year.
We stopped at Mt. Carmel for noon day prayer before arriving at Nazareth.
Nazareth
In the first century, during the time when Mary, Joseph and their family would have been living in Nazareth, the rural village community was composed of a close knit neighborhood of about 40 caves which were home to 300-400 people. Everyone would have known everyone else very well and probably been all nearly related by blood or by marriage. Today the town is significantly expanded with a mixture of byzantine churches, religious orders, mosques and tourist sites integrated into closely packed city buildings and shop fronts which all seem to have a bit of a rumpled and aging atmosphere to them. But it works for Nazareth, and the roof top view from the Sisters of Nazareth convent reveals that the town, once limited to a dry river bed valleyan no longer than 400 yards from end to end now densley spralls up the valley on all sides.
Within the Greek Orthodox Church on one end of the old town are beautiful icons and paintings depicting the Annunciation of Mary; down a narrow hall and short set of stairs in the darkedned chapel is a spring which still flows underground and once supplied the town with its water source at an above ground well. It is at that well, the lore says, that the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary. However, at the other end of the old town is a Franciscan church dating back to the Byzantine period (3rd-4th century) which has been built over the cave home which is believed to have been where Mary lived before her marriage to Joseph. Of course, the Roman Catholics say this is the site where Gabriel appeared to Mary. So, you have your choice. In either case, the history and preservation of both story and site is very rich.
On the evening of the 14th we celebrated our Sunday Eucharist in the convent chapel; the eccumenical hospitality of Nazareth is really remarkable.
Galilee (September 15)
I'll continue here as soon as I can today.
Peace,
Pastor Rachel+
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