Top left: the Rev Alex and Emma D’Aeth in Manger Square; middle: the bishop guides pilgrims down the Mount of Olives; top right: the
Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem - the route Jesus took, carrying his cross; below: Emma D’Aeth and Annie Martin
Pilgrims walk in
Jesus’ footsteps
WHEN Annie Martin
celebrates Easter this
year, it will feel very
different.
That’s because she’ll be able
to visualise how Jesus carried
his cross through Jerusalem’s
streets and where he prayed in
Gethsemane.
She was one of 40 pilgrims
from across our diocese given a
chance to see where Jesus lived,
taught, died and was raised again
as part of our Diocesan Pilgrimage.
Bishop Christopher led the trip
to the Holy Land last month. They
visited Jerusalem for four nights
and then went to the Sea of Galilee
for another three nights. They
saw the Mount of Olives, Garden
of Gethsemane, the villages of
Nazareth and Capernaum, and
sailed on the Sea of Galilee.
Above: Irene Williams, Alex D’Aeth and fellow pilgrims cool down in
“It was amazing and I was the River Jordan; right: the Rev Ruth Schofield looking over Jerusalem
blown away by it,” said Annie, a saw Jesus as someone in their
The Rev Emma D’Aeth, a
“We took a boat and crossed
trainee Reader from St Francis, way, just as we appeared to be.
the Sea of Galilee, and stopped deacon at Church of the Holy
Leigh Park, and St Clare’s, Warren
“It was a whistle-stop tour, the engines in the middle and sat Spirit, Southsea, went with her
Park. “I hadn’t been to the Holy and I’d love to go again, and have quietly, thinking of all the times daughter Alex, who is studying at
Land, but I’d always wanted to go. some moments to reflect longer Jesus would have crossed that Southampton University.
It really helped me to understand at each place. Bishop Christopher water in a boat.
“Jerusalem is like no other city
things in the Bible a lot more, and and Sally were great, and they
“I’ve taken away a greater I have visited,” said Emma. “It
I don’t think I’ll ever read it in the spoke to everyone every day to see understanding of life in those times is beautiful and wild and I’d say
same way again. We sailed on the how they were finding it.”
and of the pictures and examples untameable – the colours, smell,
Sea of Galilee and the boatman
Fellow pilgrim Jill Phipps, from Jesus used in his parables, a greater noise, even the light changes
caught a fish, just as the disciples St Barnabas Church, Swanmore, understanding and thankfulnesss before you. No wonder Jesus
would have done. We saw the said: “It was good to follow in for what Jesus went through when loved her and also wept over her.
Garden of Gethsemane and could Jesus’ footsteps. Jerusalem was he was crucified, and a greater That profound feeling of joy and
imagine Jesus’s real torment there. busy and crowded and noisy.
awareness of the tensions in the sadness of being within her walls
“And we walked along where
“We followed the stations of area and a determination to ‘pray hasn’t changed.
Jesus would have carried his the cross on the Via Dolorosa, for the peace of Jerusalem’.
“The most profound experience
cross in Jerusalem. We saw how and it was easier to imagine how
“Bishop Christopher and Sally for me was visiting the Western
narrow the streets were and how the awful the journey would have led it beautifully with readings and Wall of the old Temple from
indifferent people were to us, as been, people jeering and shoving, thoughtful prayer and quiet times. Jesus’s time. We went as a small
they tried to put up market stalls. people in the way, tripping on the We had Communion twice, once group to witness the Orthodox
Crucifixion was part of everyday rough ground while carrying the in Jerusalem and once in the open Jews worshipping at the wall. The
life then, so perhaps people then heavy cross.
stones were worm smooth with the
air by the Sea of Galilee.”
touch of so many hands through
the millennia, and prayers written
on pieces of paper pushed into the
tiny gaps between the stones. It was
made more profound by a young
Jewish girl saying her prayers, who
said Psalm 23 was her favourite and
read it to us in Hebrew.”
And Alex said: “Before
travelling to Israel you remember
all the horrible things you hear
that are going on, and conclude
that one side is more to blame than
the other. When you are there, you
sense that everyone wants to live
in peace, but in a way that ensures
they are able to practice their faith.
“What I found was that Israel
is beautiful, full of colour, noise,
and history, but also it’s a place
where poverty and wealth sit
together, but is divided by a wall.”