Celebrating the Lord's Baptism in the Holy Land

The feast of Our Lord’s Baptism was also celebrated in the Holy Land on Sunday by bishops from across Europe and North America who are making an annual pilgrimage in support of the Christian communities there. Philippa Hitchen is travelling with the group of Bishops and sends this report

The aim of the Coordination group, set up by the Vatican a decade ago, is to provide prayerful and practical support for churches across Israel, Jordan and Palestine under the auspices of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. Those joint aspects of their mission were in evidence on Sunday as one group of bishops travelled down from Jerusalem to Jericho to pray at the site where Jesus was baptised by John in the waters of the river Jordan.

Another group headed north to the ancient city of Nablus, focus of much violence and destruction during the intifadas and more recently a flashpoint of clashes between local Muslims and recent Jewish settlers. A 2010 report from the Humanitarian Affairs Office notes that around 75% of all incidents involving settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank take place in the Nablus area.

Conflicts are exacerbated by the fact that the town contains several sites sacred to Jews, including Jacob’s well, where according to John’s Gospel, Jesus sat and spoke with the Samaritan woman, one of the first people to share the news of the Messiah outside of the Jewish world.

In the northern Nablus suburb of Rafidia there are four small Christian communities: one Latin, as Roman Catholics are called here, one Anglican, one Greek Catholic or Melkite and one Orthodox. The Catholic parish of St Justin is dedicated to the 2^nd century saint who was born in this area and martyred by the Romans around the year 165. The modern day parish, led by the energetic Fr Johnnie Abu Khalil, serves around 300 souls and is twinned with the parish of St Cecilia in the northern English city of Liverpool.

Since lack of jobs or any activities for young people plagues all areas of the West Bank, Fr Johnnie recently appealed for funds to provide a new youth centre. Catholics in Liverpool, together with the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre raised £100.000 to help him restore and refurbish a derelict building, now equipped with pool tables, computers and lots of comfy chairs.

In his homily at Mass before blessing the new centre, Archbishop Kelly of Liverpool stressed that in the Jordan river, Jesus went down into the waters of baptism to be like us, to share our humanity and to make us one family. At the same time he said we are challenged to be more like Jesus, opening our hearts and speaking to people whom we see as our enemies, just as the disciples were so shocked to see their master talking to the Samaritan woman.

That really is a huge challenge for the small Christian community which makes up less than 2% of the population across the Holy Land and where Palestinians and Israelis continue to count their ever growing numbers of martyrs to the cause of peace and religious freedom. At least two Palestinians were shot dead at a checkpoint near Nablus over the past week, while an elderly man was killed in a case of mistaken identity by soldiers in nearby Jenin.

During our visit to the well of Samaria, today the property of the Greek Orthodox church, the elderly priest there showed us the spot where his predecessor was hacked to death by a settler in November 1979 and where bullet and mortar shell holes on the church façade recall the fierce fighting of the 2^nd intifada.

As the recent Middle East synod in the Vatican emphasised, Christians continue to play an essential role here, despite their dwindling numbers. Not as custodians of the holy sites, but as the living stones reflecting the message of reconciliation that Christ brought to the world 2000 years ago. Though there seems to be little political interest in pursuing lasting peace here at the moment, it is essential to support that vision of building bridges between communities, rather than constructing ugly concrete walls to keep them apart.
Listen to Philippa Hitchen's report here.