Sabbatical Pictures No 1 Church of the Dormition, Jerusalem

It's September and I'm back at work so it must be time to start blogging again.  And what better way to reflect on my Sabbatical than with a few pictures?

Here's one:

I was very excited to take this picture because, years ago on my first visit to Jerusalem, it was somewhere that made a big impact on me yet it rarely appears prominently in brochures and books.  It is in a chapel beneath Dormition Abbey on the Hill of Zion.

Amid the typical mosaics of many of the chapels this ivory and ebony chapel stands out.  It was a gift to the Abbey from the Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and it shows the wonderful simplicity of the Christian story that can be reduced to 6 pictures!  This is useful in Africa I'm sure, but stunning in the ecclesiastical, political and religious quagmire that is Jerusalem.

The Church, or Abbey, is singular testimony to the complications of Jerusalem.  Whilst (on the day I visited) it is a peaceful hilltop spot with a very nice cafe and bookshop the history is quite different.  Built in the 20th century it became the front-line when in 1948 the State of Israel was formed but not including the walled old city which is next to this church.  Jordanian troops patrolled the old city walls and Israeli troops took potshots at them (and vice versa) from the large tower of this church.  It was basically a frontier command post.

Nor has peace arrived for this church today.  Being adjacent to the Jewish Quarter has made it a target for graffiti and worse by Jewish extremists.  In a fascinating commentary on Jesus himself, although this building is pretty much entirely about Mary (dormition = fell asleep = allegedly where Mary died) the abuse in the graffiti has always been aimed at Jesus.

Not so much has changed in 2000 years.

A Son's Tribute - Open air preaching

 

 

My Dad was blessed with an amazingly clear voice.  He was also blessed with a Merseyside sense of humour.

 

God used these qualities to useful effect when he preached in the open air.  I have done this very rarely and that is something I will probably always regret as preaching to the converted or nearly converted is significantly removed from New Testament preaching.  I think I heard my Dad preach in the open air at least as often as I heard him in religious meetings.  But the open air was more fun and more frightening.

 

Certainly this was where I first encountered hecklers.  But of course to an open air preacher hecklers are the equivalent (only more entertaining) of a church preacher's Powerpoint slides.  They punctuate the monologue and make it more interesting.  Open air preachers love hecklers and even drunken ones are useful - Southend seafront was especially good for that sort!
 

I suppose that being around open air preaching was one of my first experiences of the way that all things work together for good.  On the face of it there was a problem of contentious opposition, in reality the problem was a blessing. So many of Jesus's greatest stories were the result of awkward questions.

Open air preaching started to lose its value as the nation became more politely apathetic.  The gift of the New Atheists and all those antagonists that attack the Bible for moral reasons is a gift to be treasured, though with grace - which my Dad always exhibited.