Monday, October 30

Our morning began with a quick run to the top of the Mount of Olives where we had a group picture made with the Temple Mount in the background. We came down from the Mount and entered the Old City by way of the "Lion's Gate," also known as "St. Stephen's Gate." Our first stop was at the Church of St. Anne to sing in the wonderful sanctuary and visit the ruins at the Pool of Bethesda.

From there it was a short walk to the site of the Fortress Antonia. Down beneath a convent that now stands there, we saw the pavement sections of the floor, some going back to the time of Jesus, others to when the fortress was rebuilt in the second century. In those later segments one can see the etching in the stones of the "King's Game," an earlier version of which may have influenced the methods the soldiers used to mock Jesus during his trial. As we walked across the first century sections of the pavement, our guide said that it was now possible for us to say, "I walked today where Jesus walked."

The area of the Fortress Antonia marks the beginning of the Via Dolorosa and the fourteen stations of the cross, culminating inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It was along that route that we continued to make our way through the Old City of Jerusalem. Our guide pointed out the locations of the markers that are visible from the street (some are inside what are now private properties). The original church on the site of Jesus' crucifixion and burial was called by St. Helene (the mother of Constantine who identified its site) the Church of the Resurrection. Many of us thought that name provided a better expression of Christian faith than "Church of the Holy Sepulchre," since it places Jesus' resurrection and not his burial as the center and hope of our faith.

Following lunch at Papa Andreas' Restaurant (the roof of which provided an excellent view of the Dome of the Rock and the Mount of Olives), we passed through the Jewish section of the Old City on our way to the Western Wall. Along the way we visited the ruins of the Cardo Maximus, the main street through the reconstructed city of Jerusalem following the second Jewish Revolt in the early second century. It is this street that figures so prominently in the depiction of Jerusalem in the famous Madaba map in Jordan. Once we arrived at the Western Wall, we had time to offer prayers and place petitions in the cracks of the wall. Rev. Tim and several of the men were escorted by a Jewish man there into the prayer room through Wilson's Arch. They also got a view of the tunnel that reveals some of the largest foundation stones of Herod's retaining wall constructed to enlarge the area of the Temple Mount.

Our sightseeing ended with a bus ride to the village of Bethany where we visited the church at the traditional site of Lazarus' Tomb. Then it was back to the hotel to get ready for dinner and make preparations for the final day of our trip to Israel.

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