Presiding Bishop preaches in Jerusalem, shares in Palm Sunday celebrations
Episcopal News Service. March 16, 2008 [031608-02]
Matthew Davies
Marking the annual Palm Sunday celebrations and the start of a week-long visit to the Holy Land, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori made Anglican history on March 16 becoming the first woman bishop ever to preach at St. George's Cathedral in Jerusalem.
[An audio stream of the Presiding Bishop's sermon is available here. The full text is available here.]
The Presiding Bishop's visit to the Holy Land comes at the invitation of the Rt. Rev. Suheil Dawani, who was consecrated Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem in January 2006.
The morning Eucharist, celebrated in Arabic and English, was preceded by the blessing of palm branches and a procession from St. George’s College Square into the Cathedral, located on Nablus Road in East Jerusalem.
"We joined in a remarkable multicultural worship experience today -- Arabic and English speaking Christians celebrating Palm Sunday in the midst of East Jerusalem, with palm and olive branches, singing old standard Holy Week hymns in both languages," said Jefferts Schori reflecting on the service.
The main objective of her visit, Jefferts Schori says, is to explore ways the U.S.-based Episcopal Church can be more supportive of and helpful to the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, and to strengthen relationships with the declining Christian population in the Holy Land. There are currently around 5,000 Anglicans throughout the diocese, which extends over five countries -- Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria -- within the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East.
Throughout the week, the Presiding Bishop will meet with religious leaders, Israeli and Palestinian human rights advocates, and join Eastertide services, observances and celebrations, including the traditional Maundy Thursday Foot Washing, Stations of the Cross on Good Friday, and Holy Saturday's Easter Vigil. On Easter Sunday, she will offer greetings at the morning Eucharist at St. George's Cathedral.
The Presiding Bishop is accompanied by her husband, Richard Schori; Bishop Christopher Epting, the Episcopal Church's ecumenical and interfaith officer; and Maureen Shea, director of government relations.
Acknowledging St. George's multi-national congregation that included visitors from England, Germany, South Africa, the United States, Wales, and a large contingent of Ghanaian Methodists, including 15 bishops, Jefferts Schori said: "Truly the world gathers here -- not just in Holy Week -- at the place that is most clearly axis mundi for much of the human race."
Smiles and jubilation met Jefferts Schori and Epting as they joined Dawani in greeting each member of the congregation following the service.
On behalf of the Jerusalem diocese, Dawani expressed his appreciation to the Presiding Bishop for her pastoral visit, noting that they "will work together with all Anglicans to promote peace, justice and reconciliation in the land of the holy one.
"I am sure it is really a joint effort," he said.
The Rev. Canon Hosam Naoum, acting dean of St. George's, described the Presiding Bishop's visit as a historic moment. "With all the differences in the Anglican Communion today, I see her as a uniting figure who brings beliefs and understandings and cultures of other people around the world," he said.
During the afternoon, singing, dancing and joyful celebration filled the streets as the Presiding Bishop joined pilgrims and local Christians from every denomination -- including the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem -- in the Palm Sunday procession from the Mount of Olives.
"Here again were Christians of almost every possible stripe singing and praying and walking together," she said.
"There's something about being in this holy place, especially at this holy time of year, that makes it seem like a homecoming with a few of our closest friends," said Epting, who is visiting the Holy Land for the fourth time.
The day concluded with a meeting with Ir Amim, an Israeli non-profit, non-partisan organization that engages in issues impacting Israeli-Palestinian relations and works for an equitable and stable Jerusalem with an agreed political future.
The week marks Jefferts Schori's second time in the Holy Land and her first official visit as Presiding Bishop to the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, which has 31 parishes and supports 35 institutions, including hospitals, clinics, kindergartens and schools, vocational training programs, as well as institutions for the deaf, the disabled and the elderly.
The Presiding Bishop's Palm Sunday sermon in St. George's Cathedral pulpit signified a particularly historic moment for the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, which currently does not accept women into the ordination process.
Drawing on the Palm Sunday account of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Matthew 21:1-11), Jefferts Schori noted that, in the same way today's presidents and other governmental leaders routinely receive protection on their city visits, King Herod used to have a similar kind of armed guard when he came to Jerusalem at Passover.
"But when King Jesus comes to town, no police or soldiers line the streets; only people ready and eager for a different ruler," she said. "What contrast between one who seeks and needs protection, and one who comes undefended. What contrast between the powers of this world, clamoring for an unchanging status quo, and the powers from above that urge change toward that divine vision of salaam and shalom."
Jesus had spent many months traveling throughout Palestine, preaching about the kingdom of God and healing the sick. As he rode into Jerusalem, he was greeted with palm branches as a sign of victory.
Stir things up for peace
Addressing an overflow congregation at St. George's Cathedral, which some identify as the Anglican Communion's mother church, Jefferts Schori acknowledged that "in this land called holy, we still wait for that prince of peace.
"We still seek a Lord who will work a reconciled peace with justice, here and around the globe," she said, noting that it is no surprise that when Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole town was in turmoil. "Who is this prophet? He promises another kind of kingdom, another realm where there will be no longer be any hungry or sick or imprisoned ones, no unemployed, none who are segregated from their neighbors and treated with a different justice because of ethnicity or religion."
The turmoil Jesus stirred up, she said, ended in his execution. "That is part of the invitation Jesus offers each of us, to pick up our cross, to die to self, to proclaim the word of God in Jesus and that divine dream of peace, and to be willing to die to everything else," she said. "Stir things up, for this world certainly hasn’t yet reached that divine dream of shalom. And, yes, recognize that death will be involved. There is no possibility of new life, of resurrection, without death. We will never know a healed world unless the systems that depend on violence or armed guards to maintain them die."
The Presiding Bishop's conclusion included an invitation to share in Jesus' journey of sacrifice, "of making-holy this yet unhealed world. His road into the eternal city of peace leads past the cross. It includes turmoil and threat, but it is meant to be answered by the methods of peace -- palm branches, donkeys, truth-telling, and the unexpected wind of the spirit."
On March 17, the Presiding Bishop and her delegation will visit B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization; Sabeel, an ecumenical liberation theology center; and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.