Matthew Davies, writing for the Episcopal News Service, filed this story about the Presiding Bishop’s visit to the Holy Land this week:
“Good Friday in Jerusalem was a day filled with many blessings and a solemn reminder of Jesus’ painful journey to his crucifixion as Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and an Episcopal Church delegation joined pilgrims and Christians in the Holy Land to share in Christ’s Passion.
Shortly after sunrise, a crowd representing Anglican, Lutheran and Presbyterian Churches gathered at St. George’s Cathedral in Jerusalem before embarking on Jesus’ passage along the Via Dolorosa — a Good Friday devotion known as the Stations of the Cross.
The Presiding Bishop and Bishop Christopher Epting, the Episcopal Church’s ecumenical and interfaith officer, offered readings and prayers at some of the 14 stations that represent chief scenes of Christ’s suffering and death.
‘Our morning journey through the Old City was interrupted by shopkeepers opening their shuttered shops, small tractors chugging through the narrow lanes, and other pilgrim groups taking their equivalent journeys, singing and praying in a variety of languages,’ said Jefferts Schori.
In addition to readings and prayers alternating in English, Arabic and German, the crowd sang familiar hymns telling of Jesus’ final hours and crucifixion.
The journey culminated at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, where representatives of the Churches, including Holy Land Lutheran Bishop Munib Younan, led the final prayers.”
Read the rest here.