While the students were on a field trip, we and the Barkers enjoyed a buffet lunch at Notre Dame of Jerusalem hotel. Our Valentine’s lunch, It’s a nice place. 💞 The food is average, but there’s plenty of it!
We walked through the Old City, introduced Barkers to artist Udi Merioz, then went to the Armenian Cathedral of St. James. Armenia was the first nation to adopt Christianity as its state religion (in 301 AD). This church, dating from 420 AD, is dedicated to two martyred saints of that name, St. James the Great, one of Jesus’s apostles, and St. James the Less, believed to be a close relative of Jesus. St. James the apostle was beheaded by Herod Agrippa, and this church is the traditional site of the beheading. (His head is supposed to be here, and the rest of his body is supposed to be at the pilgrimage shrine at the Church of Santiago de Compostela in Spain.) Most of the current church dates from the 12th century AD. We were able to witness a service in progress, with chanting and processing by the Armenian priests.
Patty Barker
We went with the Rosens to visit the Ratisbonne Monastery in West Jerusalem. It was started by a Frenchman who came to Palestine in 1855 as a missionary. He built a beautiful church and vocational school in 1874 on a hill that was then wilderness but is now in the heart of busy West Jerusalem. The organ there is an exact twin of the organ at Notre Dame of Sion (a sister institution of Ratisbonne) on the Via Dolorosa, both built by the same French organ company in Marseille in 1893. This organ is still in its original state and is in surprisingly good shape for its age and lack of anyone in this part of the world to maintain it properly. Ratisbonne is now a Catholic seminary, with 31 students from around the world studying to be priests. Classes are in English, and they say 31 different dialects of English are spoken there. Fr. Phat, a very kind priest from Vietnam, gave us an excellent tour. We also met the rector, Fr. Stanislaus, who is from India. We invited him and all of their brotherhood to come to the BYU Center for a tour—none of them has been here yet.
With Mary Ellen and Mark Rosen
A young couple from Hong Kong came on a tour of the Center: Scot Mo and his wife Ling. They’re originally from Mainland China, grew up Buddhist, studied in the UK (where they never encountered the Church); moved to Hong Kong where they met up with some missionaries, and he and his wife were baptized. He is now a venture capitalist in Hong Kong and Elders Quorum Pres in his Mandarin Branch there. Jim ended up taking them on a big walking tour (5 miles) of the Mt. of Olives, including Orson Hyde, Garden of Gethsemane, Kidron Valley, 7 Arches, plus dinner at Ascension Café.
Scot and Ling Mo
Jim met Scot and Ling Mo at Jaffa Gate the next day and toured them all over—Jewish Quarter, Muslim Quarter, Garden Tomb, Christian Quarter, for 3 hours. Had a good time.
The students and most of the faculty are off to Turkiye for the week. We will be the only people here with the exception of Jill Judd and the four young Properzi children. It will be way too quiet! If only the cafeteria stayed open, it would be a real vacation :)
More evidence of spring every day! So many lupin and cyclamen here in the gardens and more to come!
The heavy coats!
ReplyDeleteIs it in the 50s, 40s?
Who would want to transport a body with no head from Israel to Spain??? Ugh.
ReplyDeleteOnce again, we love these posts. (That is, except for the headless body!). ;-)
ReplyDelete