Douglas Todd: The war between Israel and Hamas scares pilgrims away from the Holy Land

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In June, Presbyterian Rev. Ross Lockhart of Vancouver led 35 Canadians on a pilgrimage to Egypt and Israel.

“It was a few months before all hell broke loose,” he says.

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This year, as a result of growing fears following the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas following the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks, far fewer spiritual pilgrimage trips are heading to Israel and Palestine.

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Normally, Christian organizations support a huge number of trips to the Holy Land, made by around 700,000 people a year. They are especially common during Holy Week, to commemorate the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, the Messiah, in Jerusalem.

Lockhart, dean of St. Andrew’s Hall, the college of the Presbyterian Church in Canada at the University of BC, has led seven pilgrimages to Israel, the West Bank and other biblically important regions of the Middle East, including Egypt and Jordan.

He also led three to Turkey, Greece and Italy, to follow the path of Jesus’ apostle, Paul. That’s not to mention the pilgrimages Lockhart has led to Northern Ireland, his ancestral homeland, to follow in the footsteps of the 5th-century missionary St. Patrick.

He is well aware that pilgrimages are not without criticism, often dismissed as a form of “religious tourism”. Centuries ago, even Protestant reformers attacked Christians who went to the Holy Land to venerate bones and relics, saying things like, “‘Look, here’s the rock that Jesus touched.'”

But for most participants the pilgrimages are “overwhelmingly positive,” Lockhart says, a geographical, emotional and spiritual journey. They often lead to personal revelations.

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“A lot of self-reflection occurs” among participants in Lockhart’s two-week pilgrimages, which include daily communal prayer, worship at historic biblical sites, and exposure to “current historical and political issues that cannot be escaped.”

Because Lockhart’s Christian pilgrimages are not overtly political (although some others are), they do not explicitly delve into the long and complex conflicts between the Holy Land’s dwindling Jewish, Muslim, and Arab Christian populations.

Although geopolitical realities form the backdrop to each tour, Lockhart is keen not to express his views on the ongoing conflict. Middle Eastern people, he says, have good reason to be suspicious of outsiders who parachute in and offer simplistic answers to complex historical, political and religious relationships.

“It’s a very tense situation, with so much grief and sadness on both sides.”

In addition to connecting with Palestinian Christian partners, Lockhart says his tours feature frequent interactions with Jews and Muslims.

“Obviously, it’s heartbreaking what’s happening now. Some of the world’s most sophisticated diplomats and world leaders are fighting for a solution. “We are called to pray for peace and offer possibilities for reconciliation, no matter how difficult it may seem.”

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Although Lockhart’s tours emphasize the development of the inner life with knowledge linked to the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, he is pleased to see that pilgrimages are becoming very popular, even for people who do not identify with any tradition or philosophical vision of the world. world in particular.

Hundreds of thousands of people a year, for example, take private tours of the Camino de Santiago in Spain, he says, often to overcome a major life transition. “There’s something about the travel aspect that makes a difference.”

He defines pilgrimage broadly: as “an earthly journey with a spiritual purpose.” Pilgrimages can be undertaken in many ways, he says, including through time spent in silence at retreat centers or even in one’s own home, reflecting on the readings.

“They often come with a sense of longing and an expectation of revelation.”

Lockhart’s pilgrimages to the Middle East stop at many places named in the Bible, particularly Jerusalem, where Jesus was tried and ultimately crucified.

Some pilgrims hoping to see Golgotha, the hill on which the New Testament says Jesus was tortured and died on the day now known in the West as Good Friday, are bewildered when they arrive in Jerusalem, Lockhart says. They discover that the site is now dominated by the ornate Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which is operated by many different denominations.

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“It’s always very crowded and has a frenetic feeling,” he says, although he acknowledges that the atmosphere of the giant sanctuary could echo the chaotic scenes surrounding the trial and death of Jesus.

Near the end of his pilgrimages, Lockhart prefers to visit the nearby Garden Tomb, which is open-air and much quieter. While it may not actually be the place where Jesus’ body was buried, “it offers a time to reflect on the entire journey we have been on. “It’s a time to pause and think about what has changed in my own life.”

He also highly values ​​visiting the sites along the road to Emmaus, west of Jerusalem, because it continues the theme of discovery. It is where, after the death of Jesus, two of his followers had a mystical experience of the resurrected Christ. But they don’t recognize it.

“For me it is a fitting end to a pilgrimage. Question: ‘Where has God found us in our ordinary lives, unknown and unacknowledged, in ways yet to be revealed?’ For me, the road to Emmaus is a wonderful Easter story, because it is not just an event, but a journey. It is about a new birth, a new possibility. “I think that’s incredibly powerful.”

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