GAFCON is over, but the fellowship flowing from it isn’t. One of the new groups recently launched with an international focus is EFAC, the Evangelical Fellowship of the Anglican Communion. It was resurrected recently by Bishop Keith Sinclair, and in a strange providence, has as is director from the USA, Richard Crocker, with whom I did a room share at NEAC in 2003, just before starting at Cheadle. Anyhow, post GAFCON they are running a trip to Galilee for a couple of days with biblical scholar and author Peter Walker, and thanks to a discretionary fund grant from the diocese, I am on it!
That did present the challenge of a 5.30am start and a breakfast of left over cake from the night before; but that was all good preparation for our first stop in the Judean desert. This starts just over the hill from Jerusalem, in fact the last village before desert is Bethany, of Mary, Martha and Lazarus fame. The desert is not flat sanddunes, but steep hills and wadis. We had a 25 minute walk in baking heat, even though it was before 6.30am. It did have its share of Bedouin, who scrape an existence from goats and tourists. We are using stops on the tour for prayer for ourselves and in followup of GAFCON, and it is easy to see why some people use the wilderness to pray, because there really isn’t anything else to distract you.
From there we went to Jericho, the oldest city on earth, so our guide said, with no walls left! Then up the Jordan valley to Galilee, past the odd burned out tank, and radical Israeli settlements hidden behind barbed wire with armed guards. We skirted the east side of Galilee, part where the swine jumped into the lake, and past the probable locations of both the feeding of the 4000 at the southern gentile end, and the 5000 at the Israeli northern end.
We stopped at Capernaum, Jesus main base for his ministry, and that included the remains of the synagogue he spoke at (underneath the one whose ruin is still standing), and Peter’s mother in law’s house, which is highly probably authentic (says our expert). It was the major town of the area, now a ruin, which gave me the sobering reminder of Jesus pronouncing his’Woe to you…’ for rejecting Him. Then of course that makes you think of the state of the church, and praying for next door the Lord m to do the same to us.
From Capernaum, we visited the place of Peter’s reinstatement after the resurrection ,’Simon Peter do you love me…?’. It is good to reflect on why we serve the Lord. Mind you there was the irony that the Roman Catholics call it the chapel of ‘Peter’s Primacy’!
Then we went up the hill to the chapel for the beatitudes, and had a great lunch, although I declined the option to eat one of the St Peter’s fish from the lake, on the grounds that I don’t want to eat something that is still looking at me! We prayed and walked down the hill to the lake again, but this included a short week on the main ‘Way of the Sea’ Roman road, that we know Jesus will have used – another ‘I walked where he walked’ moment.
Our final stop of the day wasat Magdala of Mary Magdalene fame. The whole place had only been discovered and excavated in the last ten years, and they discovered the whole town that dates from Jesus days (the town was abandoned in 67AD under Roman threat and never resettled). This included the synagogue which Jesus must have taught in. This bright gone one of the striking experiences of the holy land, the whole place is much smaller and nearer than I ever imagined. Nothing is more than 10 miles away in Galilee, and the synagogue only could hold 80 max. No wonder Jesus had to go on hillsides when 5000 turned up! Magdala also had a beautiful new church on the site, with a communion table shaped like a boat, with a backdrop of a view of the lake. It was creative, beautiful, but I couldn’t help but wonder what a poor carpenter would have made of it all!
So tonight we are in Tiberias at a hotel. Tomorrow will be the Lord’s Day in the Lord’s home territory, and seeking to encourage each other to serve the Lord’s purposes in our respective situations.
As Rector of Cheadle I have the best boss of this and any world, the biggest extended family and the greatest of jobs- to share good news!
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