December 20, 2005

Bethlehem looks much different in person than most Christmas cards or carols suggest.

So say Episcopalians who recently visited holy sites in Israel and the Palestinian Territories on a pilgrimage featured in "Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus," a 25-minute documentary newly produced by the Episcopal Church's Office of Communication. [Streaming video and audio can be found online at: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_70336_ENG_HTM.htm. For ENS Podcast information, visit: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_70390_ENG_HTM.htm]

The pilgrims, members of the Diocese of Los Angeles, made the journey October 15-25 as part of a mission trip that built on an existing companion relationship with the Diocese of Jerusalem. They called the visit "life changing" and "awe-inspiring."

Led by tour guide Iyad Qumri, the pilgrimage included visits to Bethlehem, Galilee, Jerusalem and Nazareth.

"The responses of the people, the pilgrims, to these sites is always energizing and really rewarding," said Sandy Smock, a lay leader and former senior warden of the Church of Our Saviour in San Gabriel, California.

"It really transforms people's understanding," Dr. Stephen W. Need, dean of St. George's Anglican College in Jerusalem, said. "They learn something about the history of their faith."

In Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ and the focus of the Christmas story, the pilgrims visited the Church of the Nativity.

"Sometimes people are shocked. Maybe they go to Bethlehem and have certain images of the birth of Jesus from Christmas carols or cards," Need said. "They have an image of the innkeeper and the stable, and they get to Bethlehem and find it's all rather different."

Nazareth, which was the home of Joseph and Mary, nowadays houses the largest Christian population in the Holy Land. The pilgrims followed the path from Mary's Well, a spring-fed fountain where Mary would have most likely drawn water, to the Grotto of the Annunciation, the site where the Angel Gabriel reportedly appeared to her.

"When you go to these sites and tie in what you've read in scripture for years, and see with your own eyes the same landscapes that Jesus would have seen, it is a truly awe-inspiring experience," said John Kaiser of the Diocese of Olympia. "It really brings the Gospel to life."

A visit to the excavations under the Sisters of Nazareth, a Roman Catholic community, afforded a rare opportunity to witness a neighborhood that dates back to the time of Christ and a perfectly preserved tomb thought to be the place where Joseph was buried.

Following visits to Mount Arbel and Capernaum, the grotto from which Jesus taught the Beatitudes and the rock upon which He multiplied the loaves and fishes, the pilgrims received Eucharist by the Sea of Galilee.

"Standing on the mount above Capernaum and being able to walk where Jesus walked and to see where Jesus lived and ministered – that for me is enlivening and galvanizing and something I will take back with me," the Rev. George Woodward, rector of St. Edmund's Church in San Marino, California, said.

"I'm very much attracted to the humanity of Jesus," he added, "and to be in this place helps me to envision Him as a man who was going about His ministry in very tangible ways."

In Jerusalem, the pilgrims followed the Stations of the Cross, which trace Jesus' final passage along the Via Dolorosa to Calvary – also known as Golgotha – where He was crucified and where the Church of the Holy Sepulcher now stands.

"For me that is the most significant place because I really believe it is the actual spot where Christ was crucified," Kaiser said. "It's a very powerful moment."

The Very Rev. John Tidy, dean of St. George's Cathedral, Jerusalem, who led the Stations of the Cross, described the journey as a powerful experience. "It moves people in all sorts of ways," he said. "It's a way of being in touch with the humanity of Christ."

"There is a living context to walking those stations and you find yourselves in the midst of people going about their daily lives," Woodward said. "It must have been like that in Jesus' day too as He carried His cross to His death."

For Kaiser, "one of the best things about walking the stations is that you relive Christ's crucifixion and resurrection all over again and you really do begin to get in touch with the reality of His experience."

Smock, who has visited the Holy Land five times in the past two years, described the pilgrimage as a transformational experience. "You can't help but be impacted by the people, by the facts on the ground, by the incredible hospitality and graciousness," he said. "I believe that if Christians – Episcopalians – will come here and see, their lives will never be the same again."

Further information about future Holy Land pilgrimages may be obtained by contacting Smock through the Church of Our Saviour, telephone 626.282.5147, or online at http://www.churchofoursaviour.org/.

Co-producers of "Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus" are Matthew Davies, Episcopal News Service international correspondent, and Morgan Fallon, editor and cameraman. Both Davies and Fallon were pilgrimage participants.

Episcopal News Service