Justin in Jerusalem

After nearly a week of clouds and rain, it was a pleasant surprise to wake up to blue skies and sunshine. No news of further aid convoys being allowed into Gaza after yesterday's opening of the Rafah crossing. Meanwhile Israeli bombardment of Gaza continues, in preparation for the ground assault. The compound of the Greek Orthodox church of St Porphyrus  in Gaza city was hit on Thursday last killing 18 people. It's said to be the oldest church in Gaza dating from as early as 425AD.

The Radio 4 Sunday programme, interviewed the Anglican Archbishop of Jerusalem and the Archbishop of Canterbury on a visit there. They made a plea to the Israeli military to consider urgently the plight of all those exposed to great danger, who have lost their homes and are running out of food and water. They also made an urgent plea for initiatives of reconciliation and peace making to begin. Recently a similar appeal was made by the heads of all Christian churches in Jerusalem, gathered together under the media spotlight. I've not seen this reported until now. It's violent men on both sides with the power of life and death over others who hog the attention of newsmakers and media influencers.

Clare and I attended the St Catherine's Parish Eucharist . There were three dozen adults and eight children in the congregation, and Fr Rhys presided. Before lunch, I worked on next week's Sway and the relevant liturgical reading files for distribution. I made an effort to get ahead as tomorrow when I normally do this, we plan to visit Owain and inspect the work he's done on his new apartment. Then I had a short siesta and went for a walk around Thompson's Park until tea time. 

At short notice this week, Christian Aid Wales organised a vigil service to pray for Israel and Palestine in Llandaff Cathedral at six this evening, so we walked there to join fifty others who responded to the call for prayer together. The bilingual service lasted just half an hour and involved eight people reading quotations from suffering people on both sides. There were several others there from St Catherine's and clergy friends as well, making the effort after a day's work. 

We got home in time for 'The Archers', and after supper watched 'Antiques Roadshow', and the first of a series of three episodes of a documentary about the trial of Adolf Eichmann, key Nazi organiser of the Holocaust in 1961. Eichmann was convicted on the basis of evidence from transcripts published in Life magazine of recorded conversations between himself and Nazi sympathisers. The tapes themselves were unavailable having been hidden after the event. 

It was some years before they found their way into German government archives, and for political reasons it was only in 2020 that the surviving 15 hours worth of 70 hours of taped conversations were released to an Israeli documentary team. I recall hearing of this trial when I was a sixth former, and reading about it. The Holocaust, I already knew about, as I'd been told about it by my mother, and seen footage of it in documentaries about the war on telly.

Then in the ten o'clock news, a report from the UN that a further 14 aid trucks have crossed into Gaza during the day. Sufficient diplomatic pressure on Israel seems to have secured the passage of more trucks in the aid convoy in the days to come. We'll see. 

Finally the Anglican identity of the bombed Al-Ahli hospital has been given fair coverage on prime time BBC news, thanks to the visit of Archbishop Justin Welby to his episcopal counterpart in Jerusalem. He gave a superb interview in St George's Cathedral about the need for reconciliation, including the following observation: "How you fight determines whether peace and reconciliation is possible in the long run" Let's hope that this wise counsel has its impact on leaders on both sides who have a choice to think about their plans of action before this conflcit spirals out of control into an widespread international war.

Church confronts government

Another bright sunny day, a perfect Easter Sunday morning. I listened to the Easter Eucharist broadcast from Canterbury Cathedral, with Archbishop Justin preaching a powerful resurrection sermon which was strongly critical of government plans to deport some asylum seekers to Rwanda on a one way ticket. There has been widespread moral outcry at this policy, especially as government officials have advised there is no financial justification for doing this. It was good to hear a prophetic voice proclaiming the resurrection of our Saviour Jesus Christ, in such a relevant way. To hear, later in the day, Jacob Rees Mogg assert that the Archbishop hadn't understood the intention of government policy was insulting to Justin's intelligence, if not to the competence of his advisory team. 

Clare's back pain has subsided very little, so she didn't feel able to sit through a service at St Catherine's. I decided to go to St German's instead. Last night when I went over there for the Easter Vigil, I forgot to take with me the crucifix I borrowed for the Good Friday service at St John's, so this was a good enough reason to go there again, and enjoy sitting in the congregation. When I arrived, a small group was rehearsing Mozart's 'Ave Verum Corpus', which I knew well enough, so I joined them and sat in choir robed for the Mass, as I did on Maundy Thursday. 

At the exchange of the Peace, Fr Stewart asked if I'd lead the singing of the 'Regina Coeli' at the end of the service, something I'm familiar with, but he's not yet experienced in this context. I was indeed happy to do this. When I first helped out at St German's Fr Harold Clarke the much loved retired Vicar of St Martin's Roath would sit in choir at the Sunday Mass, and lead the Angelus at the end. As he was no longer steady on his feet, he wouldn't take an active roel in the Liturgy, except for this. I'm fitter that he was at much the same age, but standing there remembering him gave me a strange sensation of being an ancient cleric. Not exactly how I tend to see myself. 

Having prepared lunch before leaving for church, it was ready to eat when I returned from church just after one. Afterwards, a walk in the park, listening to Choral Evensong from Canterbury Cathedral on my Blackberry. When I got back, I sat down, switched on the telly to check whar's worth watching tonight and while Freeview was booting, I fell soundly asleep for an hour and a half with the remote control still in my hand. When I woke up the telly wasn't on, which puzzled me. Clare had come in and switched off without trying to remove the remote control in case she disturbed me. Strange - as I didn't feel at all tired. 

I watched the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta 'The Gondoliers' on BBC Four after supper - a new production with some of the comic dialogue rewritten for our times. It was colourful and spectacular with superbly choreographed dance routines. I don't think I've ever seen it before, though some of the songs from it are familiar performance pieces heard in light music concerts. The plot is pretty daft, and I started losing interest in the second act. I could have done with something more inspirational for Easter Day. 

Landmark day - for someone else now

When I dragged myself out of bed to go to College, a blue sky greeted me with the sun rising behind the houses to the south of us. Such good cheer to start a |Monday with! The BBC Today programme told me Justin Welby would be ritually elected as Archbishop of Canterbury this morning. I wish him many blessings, but the wish doesn't carry the same energy as it did when former Archbishop of Wales Rowan Williams was elected to this post. I knew him personally when he was Bishop of Monmouth, and he ministered to me compassionately when I was having a hard time in Geneva.

After Matins and breakfast, there was a student to converse with, some office work to do, lunch, and conversations, then off to my other office in town for a couple of hours and more conversations with a potential new volunteer. It was less easy to work here as loud rehearsals for tonight's Motorpoint Arena show from a band called 'Plan B' made the walls vibrate with the noise of heavy rock music. 

I was glad to get back to College for a Family Service which had two groups of children engaging in a handwashing competition to see which could wear down a bar of soap quickest - linked to a soapy reference from the prophet Malachi. Lovely. Then home for supper and a quiet evening, already thinking and preparing the arrangements for the Ash Wednesday College quiet day a week and two days from now.