Almost everyone at the GAFCON conference visited the Mount of Olives today. There was a short prayer service, a group photo thanks to a hired helicopter photographer, and a second group photo for bishops and primates (add, Bishop Love of Albany to the official Episcopal Bishop Count by the way). Then we were off in about 20 to 30 separate groups, numbered according to the bus in which we arrived. Anne, Gwendolyn, and I were in bus and group 13. Our guide led us to the Franciscan monastery where some ancient ossuaries have been found, then to the church built over the place where tradition says Jesus wept over Jerusalem, and then finally, to the Garden of Gethsemane and the magnificent church built over the rock where tradition says Jesus cried tears of blood.
There were possibly a thousand people, just from GAFCON alone, moving in and out and around all of the holy sites so it was difficult to sense the sacred. At the same time, somewhere on that mountain at the very least near and perhaps precisely where Tradition ascribes, Jesus did weep over Jerusalem, cry tears of blood on the night before he died, Ascend into heaven and, one day, he will return again in the way that he departed. To stand there is an awesome thing.
Some of the olive trees in Gethsemane were probably saplings when Jesus led his disciples there. The ends of his robe may have brushed over them. Now they are fat with age. Olive trees are regenerative. Branches from one tree can be cut and grafted onto another. They can seem to die and be brought back to life by a careful gardener. The gardeners here have, for centuries, been quite careful but the trees still bear the scars from many wounds and cuts.
Our guide pointed us to a hill very close to the Mount of Olives where Solomon built shrines to the many gods of his many wives. It rises like a rival Zion across the Kidron valley from the Temple mount. The shrines that once stood there may have satisfied his wives. But they also drew Solomon away from the true God and the people with him.
So many metaphors but most are too easy to make.
The conference continues this afternoon with a Eucharist at 2:00pm here, which will be 7:00am eastern time in the United States. Archbishop Orombi is preaching.
This evening before dinner, at 5:00pm Jerusalem time, Os Guinness will speak about Culture and the Gospel.
I’ll do my best to take notes and provide you with live-blogged transcripts, although the transcripts may be released soon afterwards. This evening I’ll try to settle down and give my impressions of where this thing is headed and what has happened so far.
Until then, I’ll leave you with a link to an article I wrote about GAFCON shortly after it was announced. Some have suggested that GAFCON is nothing more than the internationalization of the Network. I think it is something more. At this point, I stand by what I wrote in the article linked above.
This conference seems as if it will be every bit as significant as the organizers suggested. To be honest, I had my doubts. But now that I am here and see it, this thing seems to have some weight.
43 Comments •
Matt, inside Dominus Flevit is a wonderful place to escape the tourists and get that ‘sense of the sacred’. If you have the time, I’d recommend a trip back there. Its a pity they didn’t split up the groups to see different sites on different days. Maybe a suggestion for GAFCON 2018?