Hello again from Jerusalem. We are currently at home catching up on study, e-mails and this blog. We spent the night before last at Christ Church in room 11.

 

 

 

Do you remember the lounge?

Unlike our New Year, the Jewish New Year is the beginning of 10 days for preparing to ask forgiveness for the previous year. People call each other and try to set things right during those 10 days, then on Yom Kippur the whole country stops-all cars, all restaurants, all work, to spend the entire day fasting and praying in the synagogue, sincerely repenting and calling on God for help. The opening service is called Kol Nidrei and has beautiful liturgicalmusic sung in unison by the congregation. This melody has been written as a cello concerto by Max Bruch. You can hear a nice version on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7cNznH0GhI

We wanted to be in the Old City on Yom Kippur so we could fast, go to the Wall and to the services. 

 After sundown we stopped at a Jewish Synogoge "Hurva" and listened to the Kol Nidrei on the evening of Yom Kippur and went back for the closing service where the whole congregation calls out God's name 7 times then they blow the shofar to end service. Many people were wearing all white to symbolize being cleansed form their sin.

When the Temple stood in the first century, the High Priest would make the atonement sacrifice for the sins of everyone on this day.

http://www.jewish-quarter.org.il/atar-hurva.asp

 The following day we had some God Appointments.

The first was a visit to the Jerusalem Prayer Centre which is near the Garden Tomb on Nablus Rd.
This prayer center is hosted by Dale and Anita Thorne.

For 25 years this home belonged to Bertha, a daughter of Horatio Spafford. Horatio wrote the hymn "It is Well with My Soul" after losing four children on a ship that sank in the Atlantic in which only his wife survived. Afterwards he moved to Israel because he saw a trickle of Jews coming to their homeland from Yemen and believed that this was the beginiing of the fulfilment of the promised return that heralded the Messiah At the time he lived in Jerusalem al the inhabitants lived in the Old City-a very small community compared to today.
He was a founding member of the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem and the original score of his hymn from the late 1800s is in a small museum there

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPPSG_SpojY

Positioned on the dividing line between Arab east Jerusalem and Jewish west Jerusalem, they are ideally situated to promote prayer for all peoples of the Holy Land and beyond. The upper room is beautifully arranged to promote quiet reflection and prayer and included poetry, songs, art opportunities and scriptures on the walls.

 

The second was a Christian prayer meeting at Christ Church led by David Pileggi, that included people from many countries in the world, to praying for protection and peace in the middle east.
The day finished with a vist to David and Carol Pileggi's home for long talk and a glass of wine.