Pilgrimage begins with a checkpoint

Bishop Asbil and a group of clergy and laity from the diocese travelled to the Holy Land in early December. Their reflections can all be found in this issue.

My plane arrived at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv in the wee hours of Nov. 26. Our flight was delayed by an hour. By the time I cleared customs and gathered my luggage, it was about four in the morning. A driver had been sent to fetch me. I was grateful to see him holding a piece of paper with my name scrawled on it. He had been waiting for some time. I felt badly for him and for me, too. Sleep had eluded me on the airplane.

We departed the airport and headed toward Jerusalem, where we pilgrims would be staying at St. George’s Pilgrim Guest House, located within the walls of the Cathedral Church of St. George the Martyr and the college bearing the same name. My driver and I talked nonstop along the way. I was interested in learning his story and to stay awake long enough to find comfort in a soft pillow and comfortable bed after a long journey. He lived with his family in the Christian quarter of the old city of Jerusalem. They had resided there for many generations. He talked about the hardships suffered by so many because of the Covid pandemic and then the war. Things were desperate for so many.

Only a few other cars shared the road on that early morning drive. I peered out the window as we talked to try to catch a glimpse of the passing landscape but could see very little. It was still too dark. And then up ahead cars slowed down as we approached a checkpoint. All the other cars were waved on. Six or so army personnel stood in a circle at one of the kiosks. One soldier bearing a kerchief to conceal the lower half of his face motioned for us to stop. The driver lowered our windows. He leaned in to talk with the driver and then his attention focused on me.

Where are you from? he asked.

Canada, I replied.

Passport please, he said.

I gave him my passport. He eyed the document and then looked at me carefully.

I have one question for you, he said. And there is only one answer, yes or no. He paused. Do you understand? I nodded.

Do you have a Palestinian identification card?

No, I replied.

He handed the passport back and motioned us onward.

I was now fully awake.

That moment would be a foretaste of what we would see, hear, feel and experience on this pilgrimage with the Friends of Sabeel Liberation Theology Center in East Jerusalem. The Friends of Sabeel is an international and ecumenical response to the call of Palestinian Christians for solidarity. Through education and engagement, the organization supports the struggle for equality in justice, freedom and human rights of Palestinians and works non-violently for a just and durable peace for Palestinians and Israelis.

Over 10 days, our delegation would spend time in East Jerusalem and in the West Bank, most notably in Bethlehem, Ramallah, Taybeh, Hebron and the hills south of Hebron. We would listen to the stories of academics, artists, church leaders, advocates, farmers, shepherds and ordinary people living in challenging and inhumane conditions. For 10 days we would be invited to hold in one hand the beauty and holiness of pilgrimage sites like the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Church of the Nativity, the Western Wall and a fertile land, and in the other to dwell in a place where people are partitioned, segregated and diminished by a system of repression.

Each member of our delegation will write a reflection on what we experienced – the challenging, the hard, the bewildering and the hopeful. We are calling this series “Happening Now in Palestine.”

The season of Advent points towards Christmas, to the love of God made known in the birth of Jesus to Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem, at a time when the land was occupied. Now as then, we pray for peace, shalom, salaam in the Land of the Holy One.