Back to normal

Quiet & serene
streets at last

Finally a good night's sleep after all the festivities in the streets that kept us awake the past week. Most of the muslims would have visited their families to exchange greetings yesterday evening and today almost everyone has gone to the beaches and parks to barbecue ... or if they have money, to Turkey and Cyprus and other nearby countries for a week's holiday. Which is good for us because our area will be very very quiet.

Tomorrow 5 of my students will be ordained deacons, then next week another 12 will be ordained icons and 2 priests, and then the week after 2 more will become priests. It'll be a busy 2 weeks for the Archbishop, and the rest of us who will have to participate in the liturgy.

So there was an attempt in Jerusalem to blow up some device and cause injury over the past days. Fortunately the Israeli police stepped in when the bomb accidentally blew up killing the arab perpetrators, before any more major destruction was done.  http://www.jerusalemonline.com/news/in-israel/local/israel-police-arrests-8-after-large-explosion-rocks-east-jerusalem-36147

And this failed attack has only fanned more hatred of jews for arabs, who in the latest rift, protested and demonstrated when an apartment in a jewish part of town was rented to an arab family.  Segregation and distrust are key elements in the aran-jewish dynamics.   https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-hundreds-demonstrate-against-home-sale-to-arab-family-1.6174662

Well, that's as normal as Jerusalem can get.