Palestine/Israel, Sunday, 27 February

The Crossing ceiling at Lutheran
Christmas Church, Bethlehem

It was a quiet, relaxing morning; breakfast was a little later and our first event was the church service at Lutheran Christmas Church of Bethlehem.

When we left the eating area, we met two ladies who were in Bethlehem for a conference. They are part of a Christian Peacemakers Team from Hebron, where they are monitoring Israeli treatment of Palestinians mainly at checkpoints in their area. One was from the US and one from Canada. We had a very interesting and informative conversation with them.

Our group with Dr Mitri Raheb

The Apse behind the Altar

Shortly before the service, we met to rehearse "Beautiful Savior" which we were going to sing during the church service. The service was mostly in Arabic, which meant we couldn't understand it, like services we have attended in Europe. We could sing hymns (in English) as they were being sung in Arabic. We sang our song between the readings. Spoken texts as the Creed and Our Father were said in both languages at once. Maybe there were other languages besides Arabic and English as there were people from other countries also, attending the afore mentioned conference. It was a wonderful worship experience. After the service we joined the congregation and many guests for coffee hour, at which they served good Turkish coffee.

Turkish Coffee Hour

The Cave, the gift shop of Lutheran Christmas  Church's International Center of Bethlehem (ICB) was opened especially for us, as they are not normally open on Sunday. Most of our group availed themselves of the opportunity to make purchases supporting the work of the center. One artist, who is also the chef in the restaurant, signed carvings two people had purchased.

After lunch at the ICB, we walked down Paul VI Street to Manger Square and the Church of the Nativity. This is typical of many churches in the Holy Land commemorating sacred sites. There is absolutely no guarantee their location is authentic, but . . . The Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, and Roman Catholic churches have all built churches, attached to each other commemorating the site. The cave which is the claimed sit of the birth and manger, are so covered with decoration as to be unrecognizable. It is still very good to be at such a place.

"The Site of Christ's birth"

Floor mosaics at the Church of the Nativity

We toured the rest of the site which includes places where St. Jerome translated the Bible into Latin. We also noted the wonderful mosaics in the main basilica, both on the walls and the ancient floor.

"St John" the shopkeeper

The rest of the afternoon was free for rest or shopping. We wandered back to Manger Square, where a shop keeper talked us into going to his shop a block off of the square. His name was John and his shop was called St. John's Souvenirs. We did find good things to buy there, including a bottle of wine for the "Happy Hour" our group had planned. The shopkeeper then gave us a brief tour of the neighborhood via back streets on the way back go to the ICB, including showing us the house in which he was born.

Before dinner we gathered in the lobby area for our "Happy Hour." People brought goodies they'd purchased in the market area coming back from the Church of the Nativity. We also spent some time discussing the Israeli/Palestinian issue. From there we moved upstairs for dinner, which again was very good and plenteous.