Windows to God

Yesterday was a lecture day with a lecture in the morning on Palestinian Liberation Theology and in the afternoon one on the Churches of Jerusalem. This is a city with 13 bishops!

Today the morning was spent looking at Icons in the Orthodox tradition and we visited the nearby Greek Orthodox monastery of Mar Elias. This was the church some of us went to last Sunday.

An icon of the risen Christ is always found in the dome of an Orthodox church

The iconostasis is a wall of icons and religious paintings, separating the nave from the sanctuary in a church.

With the monastery being named after the prophet Elijah there are three icons of him, being fed by an angel (1 Kings 19:4-9)...

Elijah and the cave (1 Kings 19:9-18)

and Elijah being taken up into heaven (2 Kings 2:1-12)

In the late afternoon we returned to the Old City of Jerusalem and went once again to Holy Sepulchre Church. This time it was much less crowded and we had a good and prayerful experience there visiting the tomb and Golgotha again.

The tomb and the altar inside the tomb...

The mosaics depict Jesus being taken down from the cross, laid on the stone to be anointed (see the stone below) and then placed in the tomb...  

We stayed in the city for dinner and found a restaurant with a lovely roof top view over the city and then, after dinner, we again took in some of the Lights of Jerusalem festival.  

The cemeteries on the Mount of Olives

The Dome of the Rock and the Russian Orthodox Church of the Ascension in the distance

Church of St John the Baptist

Silhouette of Holy Sepulchre Church and Omer Mosque