Page 29 - Presbyterian Connection – Spring 2021

Connection
INTERNATIONAL
Christmas in Bethlehem
presbyterian.ca
SPRING 2021
PRESBYTERIAN
29
Palestinian children re-enact Christ’s birth.
gregarious, offering to take photos with us and wishing us a “Happy Christmas.” Soon we heard cheering as a parade approached from behind us: this was the motorcade carrying the patriarchs and archbishops of the churches of Jerusalem. We stopped to watch the parade and waved to the officials as they went by, then quickly hurried up to Manger Square to se- cure a place from which we could observe the ceremonies.
Upon reaching the Square I was enthralled. Thousands of worship- pers gathered around; a smorgasbord of languages from all over the world could be heard among them. At one end of the Square stands the minaret of a Mosque, at the other the Church of the Nativity. And all around, both Christians and Muslims celebrating (as Christ is a most revered prophet in Islam as well). We stood near the entrance to the church and took in the festivities, which included speeches and, of course, music—including a Palestinian bagpiping band playing traditional Celtic music, much to the delight of my Irish friend and me. After this por tion, the Holy Fathers proceed- ed into the church for a Latin service, which we attended for a short period, but it was difficult to take in with the crowds of worshippers streaming into the building.
We made our way back to the Inn and met up with our teammates. We had dinner reservations at a local restaurant, and what a feast it was! The waiters kept coming out with
plate after plate of traditional Pales- tinian dishes. The whole group ate until we had to practically roll away from the tables. Satisfied, we retired to the Inn where the staff had set up a hospitality room for us. The Jeri- cho team (three young women from Sweden, Switzerland and Germany) had planned an evening of Christmas fun. We played games, took turns telling traditional Christmas stories, read poems and of course sang some songs. A particularly poignant moment was when our Swiss and German colleagues sang an acapella version of “Silent Night” in German, the original language in which it was written. Finishing off the even- ing with gift giving, (we had drawn names for a “Secret Santa”), we exchanged small gifts, mostly tradi- tional, handmade works from each of the Palestinian towns where we were stationed: Nabulsi soap, therapeutic Dead Sea mud, Phoenician glass from Hebron.
In the morning, several of us at- tended another local church for the Christmas Day service. It was amaz- ing for me to watch young Palestinian children re-enacting the Christmas story in front of the congregation, just as I had done many times as a young boy growing up in Knox Pres- byterian Church in Baddeck, N.S. The service was of course in Arabic, but I felt like I understood every word of it.
Unfortunately, it was soon time to go. We had to start making our way back to our placements. Billy and I
Escorting Palestinian children to school in Bethlehem past armed soldiers.
went back to our hotel room to pack our things, and before we left we took a final look out over Bethlehem through our large picture window, and were hit with a stark reminder: just below us was a section of the Great Barrier Wall, a planned 740 km barricade cutting off Israel from Palestine. In Bethlehem most of the work is completed, so we were look- ing at a 30-foot-high concrete enclo- sure, reinforced with military guard towers, that cut right through the city, separating Palestinian Bethlehem from the illegal Israeli settlements surrounding it. With resolute hearts, we knew we had work to get back to.
To be an Ecumenical Accompanier means walking alongside those who are suffering, and boldly telling their stories to the world. Some of our greatest challenges would lie ahead.
By Shaun MacDonald, former Ecumenical Accompanier in Palestine-Israel
As part of the Ecumenical Accompa- niment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) mission in Palestine, my colleagues and I were given the privilege of three days off over Christ- mas to spend in Bethlehem, with ac- commodations and meals provided. We were all excited to get a reprieve from our work and to get the chance to spend time with the entire group again (there were 21 of us in all). We were from nine different countries around the world and had formed strong bonds of friendship in our two and a half months in Palestine and Israel up to that point.
My friend Billy from Ireland and I had hit it off particularly well. Be- sides sharing a sense of humour and love for the work we were doing, we had even studied the same subjects in university. Billy was based in the north of Palestine near Nablus while I was in the southern city of Hebron. We met in Jerusalem on December 23, staying in a hostel attached to the Syriac Catholic Church just outside of Damascus Gate, the entrance to the old city of Jerusalem. We spent the day exploring the Garden of the Tomb, a small grove just outside the walls of the old city that competes with the Church of the Holy Sepul- chre as the location of Jesus’s cruci- fixion. What is interesting about this
place is that the hill it is located on has always been traditionally referred to as the “Hill of Skulls,” which is what Golgotha translates to in Eng- lish. There is also an actual rock-cut tomb on the premises, with crosses carved into the walls by crusaders nearly 1,000 years before.
Next morning, we packed our bags and jumped on an early bus to head to the checkpoint that gives access to Bethlehem and the West Bank. After crossing the checkpoint (with far greater ease than our Palestinian counterparts), we were greeted with the ubiquitous Israeli military pres- ence before making our way to our lodgings to drop off our luggage— the aptly titled Bethlehem Inn. Most of our colleagues had not yet arrived so we decided to explore the city and try to find our way down to Manger Square, where the main festivities would occur. In the end this was not a difficult task. Bethlehem is a tour- ist town due to its significance to Christians, with gift shops on every corner selling every sort of Christ- mas trinket you can imagine. But this was unprecedented: throngs of peo- ple walking as streets were closed off to traffic, all going in the same direction. We decided to follow the crowd. Along the way, every couple of hundred meters, we met up with groups of armed men in uniform; but this was not the Israel Defense Forc- es, this was the Palestinian Authority security service. They were open and
Artwork by Palestinian children.