Christian Communities in the East

Today I went on my first (and probably one of my only) field studies this semester.

I admit, I didn't enjoy it as much as it probably deserved. It was hot, I was tired, and I'd already been to many of the churches and monasteries that we visited. Still, some of them were new, and some of the old ones were seen under different circumstances, so it was interesting.

This particular field study was for the Christian Communities in the East class, taught by Petra Heldt. She is very passionate about both the eastern churches and the Jewish people, so quite a bit of today was spent learning about how there is dialogue and cooperation happening between various Christian and Jewish groups (sometimes also Palestinian).

We visited...let's see if I remember...

1. The Monastery of St. John of the Desert, a Franciscan monastery. Apparently, the Franciscans have been in the country for 800 years now, according to Petra, the only Catholic group that was somehow allowed to stay after the Muslims kicked out the Christians. It was fun to see this sight while not dodging raindrops.

2. The "Moscovia" Monastery? Not quite sure of it's name...but its a Russian Orthodox Monastery. With a fairly new church (build since the re-unification of the Red and White Russians in the land) with beautiful gold domes.

3. The Visitation Church (celebrates where Mary visited Elizabeth and sung the Magnificat, and where Elizabeth and John hid from the soldiers who came to kill John). Claim to fame: The Magnificat on a wall in hundereds of different languages.

Side note: At this point (and a few others in the trip) we discussed non-cannonical stories about John, Jesus, Mary, and Elizabeth. Very interesting. I think it's a bit unfortunate how little we in the west know about our "roots" in the east.

4. The Monastery of the Sisters of Zion. By this point in the trip I was quite warm, quite low on blood sugar, and quite unable to give my full attention. But they had some pretty flowers. :) (And, from what I did hear, it sounds like they do some good things in the land.)

5. LUNCH!

6. The Monastery of the Holy Cross. I'd been here before as well.

7. Syriac Church in Jerusalem. I'd also been to that compound, but this time we met with a different guy and actually got to see their church. I didn't realize that they also claimed to be built over the location of the Last Supper. Of course, for every event that took place in this land, there are at least two sights that claim "It was here!"

8. Church of the Holy Sepulchre. As I've already spent several hours in this church, I felt less guilty when I skipped out early and went home. I was a bit exhausted.

And then I came home...ah...a relatively cool flat, and really cool flat-mates, are good to come home to. :) Just for kicks, here's a picture from the road outside my apartment of sunset over Jerusalem.