News from Jerusalem

News from Jerusalem

Holy Week 2020

As the time approached when he was to be taken up to heaven, he set his face resolutely towards Jerusalem.(Luke 9,v51)

Two days ago I was about to leave the living room when, passing the TV, I was stopped in my tracks.  A news item was being broadcast from Jerusalem.  First came views of the empty streets and even of the Wailing Wall, totally deserted because of the present coronavirus pandemic..  Then the presenter announced that this is a holy week for all three faiths which lay claim to Jerusalem as a special holy place: Christian (Easter), Jewish (Passover) and Muslim(Laylat al-Bara'at, a holiday which celebrates the Night Journey, both physical and spiritual, which Muhammad made to Jerusalem.)  Three religious leaders then appeared simultaneously on the screen, asking their followers to suspend all aggressive activity towards people of the other faiths, as we are all equally under threat from the virus.  (How I hope that this 'cease-fire' will have a lasting effect - but, alas, can't be over-optimistic...)

Meanwhile, this is the place I had hoped to be tonight: my church - Kingcase Church in Prestwick. (The unusual cross with the lamb refers to John the Baptist's words "Behold the Lamb of God" when he saw Jesus approaching him to be baptised in the River Jordan. John's Gospel 1, v 29)  

This year Kingcase was to host the annual Holy Week services shared by all the Prestwick churches of various denominations: Presbyterian Church of Scotland, Episcopal, Roman Catholic and Evangelical. Tonight the vicar of St Ninian's Episcopal church was to preach.  I had hoped to play for their ladies' choir, which includes members of Kingcase (Church of Scotland) and the Roman Catholic church.  For several weeks we had practised our chosen piece - the North American spiritual Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

At the choir's last rehearsal Norma, my Roman Catholic friend, gave me some photographs taken at a wedding we sang at several years ago.  Her brother Harry, a singing teacher and organist, had been asked to supply a choir for the event.  Norma asked Julie, another St Ninian's choir member, and myself to join her in the alto section.

The wedding was very unusual.  The bridal couple were lawyers from New York.  The husband-to-be had family connections with Ayrshire, so they decided to have the wedding in Scotland, and employed a wedding organiser to find "a small church with a beautiful view of the surrounding countryside!"  The organiser decided upon the R.C. chapel in Maybole, a little inland town south of Prestwick.  The bride-to-be sent Harry a list of her chosen music, some of which she wanted us to sing upon her arrival for the ceremony.   We were to sing while she and her bridesmaids stood listening in the porch before proceeding up the aisle.

We began with Durufle's beautiful Ubi caritas et amor Deus ibi est. (Wherever there is compassion and love, God is there).You can listen to that on YouTube, sung by the choir of King's College.

Today I remember these words, thinking gratefully of all the many, many compassionate people risking their own health in order to help others: doctors, nurses and all other NHS workers, carers of the vulnerable, shop assistants, supermarket suppliers and deliverers.  May God bless them and reward them for their loving care.  Amen