Orthodox Good Friday

Our church in biblical Arimathea

It's the Orthodox Good Friday today. Copts and Ethiopics were already up at 5.30am making their version of the Way of the Cross. The crowds got bigger and bigger and by 8am it got so large and out of control, police stepped in to close our street and those along the Way of the Cross. Every few meters there were barricades and groups moved barricade by barricade till they reached their destination. I was petrified because I still had one more day of guiding to do ... and so I left at 8am only to find I was locked in my own house. It took lots of explanations to have the police allow me to get out ... through 4 barricades. I was sure I didn't want to return till late evening so as not to be locked out of the City. Utter stress.

The tomb of St.
George in Lod

This morning we visited the tomb of St. George in the city of Lod: that's the George who killed the dragon. Old is the modern name of the biblical Lydda where Peter worked a miracle. The place of the tomb is today a Greek Orthodox Church ... and there was a lot of hustle and bustle because the Greeks were preparing for Holy Saturday tomorrow. They had decorated a table to represent the tomb of Christ but covered with a frame of flowers to symbolise the resurrection.

Then we had Mass at our ancient church in Arimathea ... today it's called Ramla. The parish priest and community of sisters and workers were super kind to us ... even cooking up a lunch which was unplanned. They were so generous and kind. It was amazing. Then we went on to St. Peter's church in Jaffa to greet the community there. It was a short visit as we had spent over 5 hours in Ramla. Anyway everyone was happy. That's important. I think today is my last day and tomorrow I get to rest.

Now things are getting scary up in the Syrian border. Govt. forces and placing heavy artillery in the buffer zone with Israel ... which apparently is against the 6 Day War agreement. We don't know how Israel will respond but believe me if it's going to be military .... then Syria better watch out.  https://www.timesofisrael.com/assad-regime-places-tanks-artillery-in-buffer-zone-with-israel-report/

And even scarier yet ... ultra-orthodox jews rioted and beat up ambulance attendants and removed the body of a jewish baby from the ambulance because they felt the medical service was impure ... or not jewish enough. Imagine the trauma of the relatives.  https://www.timesofisrael.com/haredi-radicals-grab-body-of-drowned-baby-from-ambulance-during-funeral/

And the ultra-orthodox rabbis continue their war with other jews by declaring that artichokes from italian .... which are usually eaten by italian jews during the Passover season ... as impure / non-kosher and hence banned their eating and import into Israel. It's caused an uproar among italian jews overseas and in Israel.   https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/.premium-rome-s-jews-fume-after-israeli-rabbinate-bans-staple-dish-1.5976677