Peter Quilty, a priest of the Townsville Diocese has just finished a three month stay at Tantur in Jerusalem, and has been entertaining and enlightening us with his weekly emails. We hope you enjoy them too - and consider all that he has to say about the country and its trials and tribulations.

Tuesday, 1 March 2005 2:51 AM

Subject: Well, Settle Yourselves for Tantur cont'd................!!!

Dear Friends here and there,

Weather has warmed. Very interesting seeing the almonds forming on the branches of the almond trees, but Michael, our rector, assures us that we will never get any. The Palestinians coming through the property get after them as soon as they ripen - sometimes it is their only food!! They forage in our industrial bin, too, searching for anything that we may have thrown out.......

Well, the week has been as busy as always and a few extras thrown in that I'll come to.

Monday was a new lecturer for us, Catriel Sugarman (an Orthodox Jew) , who used to make precious items for Synagogues, and souvenirs and jewellery and the like. He tells the story that a very wealthy US businessman asked him, back in the '90's, to make a perfect model of the 2nd Temple (of the time of Herod the Great). Catriel didn't want to do it as it would be so intricate, but the businessman insisted and also provided the money - big, big bucks - so Catriel took it on. He and 5 artisans worked for a year to make this model, and finally it was completed. It was displayed here for a short time and then taken to the US where this businessman has it in his home. It is a model that is a perfect replica of the temple as described in the early books of Scripture (Exodus round chapter 19/20 and ff) - scale 1: 125 - all made of precious wood and gold and silver. He gave this lecture with slides that had been taken of the model by professionals and it was quite incredible - even to handles on doors and the like. He was a very interesting man and was totally committed to the work he had done - he obviously is anticipating the construction of the 3rd Temple which relates to the coming of the Messiah for the Jews.

And that was just Monday morning!!!!!!!!!!

Monday afternoon, did a bit of "window shopping"

At dinner that evening we had 4 rectors present:

Michaerl McGarry , (current rector),

Tom St ransky , (previous, before Michael)

David Burrell living here and one of our lecturers in Islam-Christian relations

and Ladrom Bowling, a 91 yr old Quaker, here in the late 70's, and still involved in the Peace and Reconciliation Groups here and in other parts of the world. It was quite an extraordinary gathering.

Tuesday , was another new professor - Daniel Rossing , another Orthodox Jew, but so open and refreshing. He had been a Minister in one of the Israeli Governments as Minister of the Interior and for Christian Affairs, and he had marvellous insights to his own people and to the fights between the various Christian groups that frequently occur, over church space, seats, lights, ladders.....you name it the Christians will fight over it!!!! But Daniel was just marvellous in unravelling the many threads that go to make up any story.

His explanation of the Israeli-Jewish situation was great. His concerns are not for the Jews of the Diaspora, but rather those born in Israel - and there are not that many. These Jews live in a state of confusion not knowing to which world, or world view, they belong. Part of this, he said, is Holocaust related, even though now they are using it wrongly. He told us of the settlers of Gaza areas, who had dared to put yellow stars on their shirts in protest against the Government moving them out by July, and there was public outcry from every section of the Jewish media - good to see it backfire! ( even as he hinted).

Daniel is well respected in Jerusalem circles, where he now works in inter-faith, inter- race dialogues for the establishment of peace, justice and reconciliation between all.

Tomorrow he is taking us on a tour of New Jerusalem.

Wednesday was again a new Professor, Naim Ateek , an Anglican Priest from the Galilee area – Nazareth in fact! He is a Palestinian Israeli, having lived in Bet Shean till '48 when his house was invaded by the Israeli revolutionaries, and his family was made homeless and lost all their lands. His expertise is Palestinian Liberation Theology and he was wonderful.

During the week we had a group of Anglicans here having a "look-see" at Tantur , and one of them met Naim again, having not seen him for 27 years. It was marvellous to see such 'homecomings'.

Wednesday afternoon we had the IPCRI (Israeli/Palestinian Centre for Research and

Information) meeting here. Two weeks ago Denis Scanlan and I had gone to their meeting in Jerusalem , and this fortnights' meeting was to be on "Prisoners". Talks were given by Tzivi Livini , (Israeli Minister for Justice), and Abdul Razen , (PA Minister for Prisoners). They were both very good, but unfortunately no questions were allowed as they are currently in negotiations. As a result of their presence, the IDF were over our place like the plague – the security was unbelievable! We had the dogs in earlier in the day and armed soldiers on rooves, in galleries and everywhere. I had to leave just as they were finishing as I had a 6pm Mass at Bethlehem Uni and was being picked up at 5.30pm outside our Gate of Compassion. When I got to the Gate of Compassion, the large rock step was all covered in fresh blood leading down into a field away from the gate. I followed it for 30metres or so and then had to go on - there was no body there so I gathered that someone must have rescued the injured one. I couldn't do anymore that evening and reported it to Michael and then decided to take photos next morning.

That same evening, Fr Tom Stransky invited Denis and me to a meeting of Jews against Home Demolitions - which I in my naivety thought was some sort of peace deal! Fr Tom just said to me as we went into this Jewish Centre "We'll be the only Goys (gentiles) there, and it's good for you to see the other side" ------ he wasn't kidding!!!!! Boy - what a night!!!! The subject was " Äntisemitism : the Future of Europe" and I came away with the impression that there exists an incredibly pervasive ‘victim' mentality, evident in so many, and it appears to stay with them till death. There was only one Shoah survivor there; of the rest more than 60 % were from USA over the last 20 years or so; and the other large group were from France . [The best part about that night was meeting up with a friend of Tom's, Sheila Hidden, whose Mum and Dad I had been privileged to have in Woollahra parish 30 years ago.] It really was such a heavy night, that I thought that I'd be sleeping in a lead blanket, but as Tom said it's good to see the other side - even if only once!! And it helps me to get some sort of understanding as to where these people are coming from and how they find it impossible to think in any other way. One of the saddest things is that there appears to be no desire to even attempt to consider any other viewpoint. No wonder psychiatrist's do well over here and in the US !!!

Thursday was more trouble around - soldiers all over the place in the early morning - and an armoured vehicle by our back gate and chasing Palestinians in the grounds. I heard the noise as I came up to get an early cuppa and went out on our roof next to the kitchen .. Down by the checkpoint there was much shouting and running and somebody crying out. Next thing I see a soldier point his machine pistol in the air and fire, and then the soldier next to him kneels and fires an aimed shot at someone. Thank God it hit no-one, but it was awful to watch. St aff come running out and told me to get down, so I did as I was told as they are used to these things, then carefully looked over the edge when they told me I could and there was someone taken away on a stretcher.

Later in the day, when I went to photo the back gate and blood trail, some of the Palestinians told me, (one spoke English well) that ''yesterday they got a young man and bashed him, then shot him in the leg" and he obviously went into the field to get away. He must have got onto our property while the talks were on and then tried to come out and the Israeli soldiers would have gone berserk at the security breech. It was not a good start to the day....................

Ed Breuer was our lecturer/professor for class today and he was, as always, most entertaining. We were able to put our many questions to him, as another Orthodox Jew but from a very different background and he was great the way he explained his answers to us. He is very accepting of Christianity and certainly open to all our questions. It certainly helps to see the complex varieties of Judaism, observant or otherwise.

Thursday dinner time, a group of 50 young people, arrived for a 3 day seminar on "Seeds of Peace". This is what the group is known as and these young people - 15-17, Jews, Muslims, Christians, Israelis and Palestinians - are all chosen from various schools round here, Jerusalem and even as far afield as Eilat down south. We wondered how it would go.

Friday brought Petra Heldt back to give us more on the Byzantine Orthodox practice and faith, and she is such a fascinating lady with an incredible love of the ancient texts of Christian Orthodoxy. I'm afraid that her book list is going to become another dent on the credit card!!!!!!!!!!! The result of her talks is to get some of us to Eastern Liturgies (Mass) and hopefully they will have some English translations - if they are not Arabic, they are Syriac, Aramaic, or Greek!

In the afternoon we rested up as we had a visit to to Debbie Weissmann's Synagogue, at 5.30pm arranged for the beginning of Shabbat, and then after, the Friday Shabbat service we went in pairs to a host house for a Shabbat meal. It was a great experience and they were all wonderful to us. They are a very active, socially responsible, liberal, peace-activist Orthodox Synagogue, who have no specific Rabbi. Instead they have several who are part of the community who share with others the leading of the services, including the women leading. An extraordinary evening and a night that I may be able to explain a little more when I'm home. All of them seem to be very aware of the bind that their government has got them into and they are praying very hard for a passage out of the impasse - and for peace.

When we got home the young people were still at it in the other part of the house, but it was marvellous to see them working together. Many of them have never met a Palestinian, or a Christian, or a Jew or a Muslim. They are so confined; this is an extraordinary chance for seeds of peace as their name implies. And the adults who run it are from all over; some are locals, others have come from O/S, teachers and other professions. The fact that these young people could be together for the 3 nights here was a great blessing for them and for us.

The weather for the whole week has been beautiful and so it was on Saturday when Mustafa Abu Sway came again to teach us more on Islam. We are so fortunate in the lecturers that have been chosen for here, as each has been so open, and all of them are working in some areas of ecumenism, inter-faith, inter-religious, peace-activist dialogue that it gives us grounds for great hope - like the young people sharing with us at meals. We wondered how the suicide bombing might have affected the young people and their relating - but they, sadly, are used to these things and so they get on with what is to be done; as on Saturday night when they invited us to come to their Forum. It was very good as each was asked to show and talk about something in their life that had very special meaning - and that's hard for kids that have just met each other in the previous 2 days and are in the middle of the awkward stages of adolescence. It was a privilege to be with them - and at the end of the forum the Melchite bishop come along. He may have had some of his school pupils here, and he is a wonderful man.

Today has been quiet - thank God! Denis and I went to the little Melchite Convent down alongside the Wall for Mass this morning, and again it was a beautiful experience of other ceremonies and other cultures. Hopefully, all these wonderful experiences of acceptance will make us more able and willing to create such experiences back home.

The realization grows each day of how blessed we are - and any of us who have travelled into areas of great poverty know the obligation for us to share. For example, some of these kids have never been out of Bethlehem - they are forbidden to do so. Last week one of them was expelled from school, and what for? No-one knows! He had no pass but wanted to come to this "seeds of peace" group, so he got through our Gate of Compassion and came! He still has to get home but that's easier.

And so it goes: beautiful, broken, bloody-minded, baffling - and still an incredible gift for us participating in this course. To put into practice at home what we learn here is the challenge.....

Tonight we are going to a classic organ recital in the Mormon Concert Hall on the slopes of the Mount of Olives - the paradoxes continue!!

Hope you're all well. And please - keep praying for the justice and peace of this land.

God bless for now.

Kind regards,

Pete.