Sunday calm

Latin Archbishop with a chinese group
of priests and nuns

The military presence in and around the Old City continues to be heavy today after the stabbing attack yesterday. Arabs continue to be stopped and searched in the streets and I witnessed several this morning at Damascus Gate. There was also a large group of arab children on an excursion ... about 7 yrs old. Many were crying because they ere afraid of the many soldiers and the rough stop-and-search techniques.

Our Latin patriarchate has been getting a boom of chinese visitors recently. Chinese catholic groups have been asking for audiences with the Archbishop (we have no Patriarch at the moment) and the Custos. The chinese tourists have grown by over 200% and is in fact the largest group of foreign visitors the past year. They will play a crucial role on the next decade in keeping the local Holy Land Church alive with its visits and contributions both spiritual and financial.

Dates fruiting on the palms

The Greek Orthodox church on the other hand is back in the headlines ... this time the Patriarch Theophilos vowing to fight the Israeli Court for admitting the sale of 3 huge church properties at Jaffa Gate to a jewish occupation agency. The sale which was made several years ago by the deposed Patriarch Irineos for his own personal financial gain was violently opposed by the greek orthodox faithful who are mostly arabs.They see it as a betrayal to enrich the greeks and entrench the jews in the Christian Quarter of the Old City. It led to the patriarch being pelted with eggs during Easter at the Holy Sepulchre and eventually his dethronement that was recognised by the world's greek churches. Since then the Greek Church has fought to prove that the sale was illegal but today the High Court ruled that it was legal and the jewish agency will take over the properties. Let's see where this will all end. It's ugly that's for sure.  http://www.timesofisrael.com/greek-orthodox-church-aims-to-block-jerusalem-property-sales-in-court/

Well despite all this, I'm happy that summer is giving us lots of lovely fruit. Plums and peaches are still in abundance, the first grapes are being harvested and the dates are beginning to ripen. It's a bit early for these fruit but I think the autumn harvest feast "Tabernacles" should occur early as well so it shouldn't be a major problem. In fact today the Armenians are celebrating the grape harvest and priests bless the grapes offered in church. I tasted the first fresh dates last week ... I like it very much. It's crunchy and sweet ... but better than the dark over-sweet preserved version. And the melons and grapes ... chilled ... are perfect in this hot weather.