Itinerary

Day 1, Monday 3 Dec

Travel to Jordan

Our pilgrimage will begin with a late afternoon Royal Jordanian scheduled direct flight from London Heathrow Airport to Queen Alia International Airport, Amman (Jordan). Dinner will be taken on board and in Amman we will be met by a our Lightline guide and driven to our hotel in Madaba.

Day 2, Tuesday 4 Dec

Madaba, Mt. Nebo, Mukawir

In the Greek Orthodox Church of St. George we have the land of the incarnation laid out as a sixth century mosaic map showing the whole extent of the biblical arena with the pilgrimage route to Jerusalem and the holy city at its centre. Here we see the places of the biblical story. From Madaba we drive 10 km to Mount Nebo on the western edge of a plateau with spectacular views across the Jordan Valley to Jericho, Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. Mount Nebo is the place where Israel’s landless and homeless people arrived after travelling through the wilderness and met with a promise of sustenance, the land as a gift from God. Moses could only see the promised land but not enter it. At Machaerus we climb up to the remains of one of Herod’s palaces high above the land he possessed and with views over the Dead Sea. Here he offered Salome half his kingdom and had John the Baptist beheaded.

Day 3, Wednesday 5 Dec

Bethany beyond the Jordan, Dead Sea, Umm Quais and Galilee

Today we spend some time where the revealed Abrahamic faiths – Christianity, Judaism and Islam - trace many of their original moral foundations. After the Exodus Moses camped in the Plains of Moab around Bethany before ascending Mt. Nebo to die. Joshua miraculously crossed the Jordan River near Bethany (much wider and on a different course to the present day) and hundreds of years later the Prophets Elijah and Elisha again halted the waters of the river and walked across. Elisha cleansed a leper and made iron axe-heads float in the river. Tradition going back thousands of years identifies a small hill at Bethany as the place where Elijah ascended to heaven on a chariot and horses of fire and where God appeared to Elijah and Elisha in a whirlwind. Nearly a millennium later John the Baptist emerged to launch his ministry of baptismof repentance, starting his prophetic mission from the same place as Elijah had ended his. Above all this is where John’s baptism of Jesus marked the start of Jesus’ public ministry. We hope Dr Mohammed Waheeb, who has excavated this site, may be available to join us for some part of our visit. En route to Gadara we have the opportunity to view and learn about the Dead Sea. Travelling almost to the northern border of Jordan we visit Gadara, a pagan Decapolis Graeco-Roman city. Gadara is the site of Jesus’ miracle of the Gadarene swine. Jesus heals the man possessed of demons so that he may go to a real home instead of a tomb. The pigs go home too to the underworld. Gadara commands magnificent views over the northern Jordan Valley, Sea of Galilee and Golan Heights. If we have a clear day we will see the snow covered peak of Mt. Hermon. We leave Jordan via the northern crossing into Israel and drive around the southern edge of the Sea of Galilee to our hotel.

Day 4, Thursday 6 Dec

Chorazain, Mt of Beatitudes, Tabgha, Peter’s Primacy, Capernaum, Sea of Galilee

We spend today on and around the Sea of Galilee, exploring how this beautiful area was both gift and challenge for Christ himself. At Chorazain, condemned by Jesus for its lack of faith, there is a partially restored black basalt C4 AD synagogue. We drive up to the beautiful octagonal Church and garden of the Mount of Beatitudes which conveys an impression of immense tranquillity. Its shady gallery is the best place from which to contemplate the spiritual dimension of the Sea of Galilee and see virtually all the places of Jesus’ Galilean ministry. From the church we will walk down the Mount of Beatitudes through the olive grove to the Heptapegon, ‘the place of seven springs’, on which is found the Church of the Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes with its beautiful mosaic floors and celebrated mosaic of two fish flanking a basket of loaves. A little further on is the Church of the Primacy of Peter, a modern Franciscan Chapel built on to the walls of a late C4 AD building. At Capernaum, the ancient fishing and trading village, we see Peter’s mother-in-law’s house where Jesus stayed and explore the C4 AD synagogue built on the foundations of the synagogue it is believed Jesus taught in. The day will draw to a close with our crossing of the Sea of Galilee around sunset.

Day 5, Friday 7 Dec

Nazareth, Megiddo, Samaria, Shechem

This morning we make an early start to allow sufficient time to see Megiddo before Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath. At Nazareth, considered to be Jesus’ home town, we visit the modern Basilica of the Annunciation, two interconnected churches one above the other and the near-by Church of St. Joseph, below which is a cave identified by pious tradition as the workshop of Joseph. From here we walk through the bustling market to the Greek Orthodox Church of Mary’s Well with its spring of fresh water. Megiddo, situated at the head of the most important pass through the Carmel range of mountains, is the “royal box in one of the great theatres of history.” Numerous armies have fought over the flat stage of the Jezreel Valley and Armageddon (Mountain of Megiddo) has become the symbol for the battle to end all wars. The complex site has over twenty superimposed cities. Secure access to water was imperative for a city as often besieged as Megiddo and we will have the opportunity to walk through the elaborate shaft and tunnel system installed to bring water into the city without those besieging it realising. For the first time in many years we are able to travel through Samaria to Shechem (Nablus) where Jesus met the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well and one of only two places in Israel where Samaritans are found today. This evening we arrive in the many storied city of Jerusalem.

Day 6, Saturday 8 Dec

Via Dolorosa, Holy Sepulchre, Bethlehem Church of the Nativity, Shepherds Fields.

This morning before breakfast we enter the Muslim Quarter of the Old City to walk the traditional way, the Via Dolorosa, followed by pilgrims over the centuries to Calvary within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This ancient church covers the place of the resurrection of our Lord, marked by an edicule which we shall be able to enter. We return to our hotel for breakfast. We enter Bethlehem through the enormous 9 m high Partition Wall and by-pass Rachel’s tomb, similarly surrounded by a wall, to visit the Church of the Nativity, below which is the cave venerated as the birthplace of Jesus. Nearby is the serene Milk Grotto, a complex of beautiful chapels commemorating the place where Mary spilt her first breast milk. We will visit the Bethlehem International Christian Centre, founded by the Lutheran theologian, Rev’d Dr Miitri Raheb, whom we hope will speak with us. After lunch there we will visit a Refugee Camp and hold a Eucharist in Shepherds Fields.

Day 7, Sunday 9 Dec

Mount of Olives, Gethsemane, St. Peter in Gallicantu, City of David, Hezekiah’s Tunnel

The most spectacular panorama of Jerusalem is from the esplanade above the Mount of Olives some 100 m above the city. Descending Olivet on foot we visit the tear shaped Church of Dominus Flevit on a rock designated as the place where Jesus wept over Jerusalem. We will continue down the Mount of Olives to Gethsemane with its ancient olive trees where Jesus was betrayed. The Church of All Nations built in 1924 is located on the traditional site of the garden in which Jesus collapsed and prayed before his arrest. We drive around the walls of the Old City to St. Peter in Gallicantu where tradition has it that Peter denied Christ. Deep in the dungeon underneath the adjoining high priest’s house, we shall celebrate our Sunday eucharist. By the side of the church are the recently excavated steps and pathway which is the likely route Jesus would have taken into the City of Jerusalem. In 997 BC David needed a capital independent of tribal structures so he brought the Ark of the Covenant, the religious symbol uniting the Twelve Tribes, into the city and made Jerusalem his capital. We begin our exploration at Warren’s Shaft, a rock-cut sloping tunnel leading to a vertical shaft through which a bucket could be dropped by a rope into a pool fed by the Gihon Spring providing secure access to water when under siege. Some 250 years later as Jerusalem was at risk of attack from the Assyrians, King Hezekiah cut another tunnel to bring water into the west side of the city. The outlet was closed and hidden from the eyes of the invaders. Hezekiah’s Tunnel from the Gihon Spring to the Pool of Siloam is in the shape of a huge “S” and measures 538 m. For those who would like to it is possible to walk through the tunnel or the alternative Canaanite escape tunnel. This evening we hope to hear from Jeff Halper who chairs the Israeli Committee against House Demolitions.

Day 8, Monday 10 Dec

Jewish Quarter, Western Wall, Haram esh-Sharif (Temple Mount), St. Anne’s, Pool of Bethesda, Israel Museum

This morning we will walk through the Jewish Quarter of the city with the remains of six houses from the Herodian period and the Roman Cardo Maximus, the main north-south artery of Byzantium Jerusalem before arriving at the Western (Wailing) Wall where Jews pray and lament the destruction of the Temple built by Herod the Great in 20BCE. From the Western Wall Plaza we will make our way through the security gates on to Temple Mount itself past the Temple Mount excavations. Haram esh-Sharif is the third most important Islamic site in the world and previously the site of the Jewish Temple in Jesus’ day. The jewel of Jerusalem architecture, the Dome of the Rock, graces a vast esplanade whose quiet spaciousness is the antithesis of the congested bustle of the surrounding narrow streets. From Temple Mount we make our way off the esplanade into the colourful streets and markets of the Muslim Quarter to visit the loveliest church in the city, the Crusader Church of St. Anne. According to Byzantine tradition the crypt enshrines the home of the Virgin Mary and her parents Joachim and Anne. Next to it are the ruins of miraculous medicinal baths, the Pool of Bethesda, where Jesus healed the man crippled for 38 years. Close by on the foundations of the Antonia Fortress, named after Mark Anthony and built by Herod the Great to protect and control the Temple is the Convent of the Sisters of Sion. Within the convent is the pavement at ground level upon which are carved games played by the Roman soldiers. The rest of the afternoon will be spent in the Israel Museum which lies opposite the Knesset, home to the Israeli parliament. There are exhibits of all facets of Jewish history and the Shrine of the Book which houses some of the Dead Sea Scrolls..

Day 9, Tuesday 11 Dec

Jericho, Qumran, Negev Desert, Avdat and southern border crossing back into Jordan.

This morning is an early departure from Jerusalem for Jericho, the lowest city at 258 m below sea-level and oldest on earth, strategically located on the border between the desert and the lush green oasis. Herod the Great first leased the oasis from Cleopatra who had been given it by Mark Antony. Herod laid out new aqueducts to irrigate the area beneath the cliffs. Churches commemorating the temptations of Jesus were erected on Jebel Quruntul, the Mount of Temptations, where we will gather to remember Jesus’ testing in the wilderness. From Jericho we follow the Dead Sea to Qumran, the community centre of the Essenes who produced the famous Dead Sea Scrolls. We see the audio visual presentation, the excavated complex and the caves where the Arab shepherd boy found the scrolls. We travel south following the Dead Sea via Beer Sheva , the centre of activity of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, into the Negev Desert, a range of mountains and spectacular craters. The Nabataens appeared on the scene in the Hellenistic period and became Christian, developing a network of trade routes. The present day kibbutzim in the Negev command admiration for their courage and skill that have made the desert bloom but their achievement pales beside that of the Nabataeans who created great cities in the same harsh environment. The most impressive of these desert cities is Avdat which we will visit. We continue south to cross the border back into Jordan at Aqaba, the port on the Red Sea.

Day 10, Wednesday 12 Dec

Aqaba or optional visit to Petra. (Full day Excursion to Petra - £75)

Full day Excursion to Petra - £75

Before returning home we have the option of spending the day at our 4 star hotel on the Red Sea beach in Aqaba or taking a day visit to Petra, the spectacular Nabataean city carved out of the sandstone coloured by the many mineral deposits washed through it, “the rose-red city half as old as time.” To reach the city you walk through the awesome “Siq”, an immense crack in the sandstone. It is a winding 1 km long fissure between overhanging cliffs that seem to meet 90 m overhead. Near the end of the passage, the Siq, with great style makes one last turn and out of the gloom in the towering brightness appears the Khazneh, the Treasury, one of the most elegant remains of antiquity, carved out of solid rock from the side of the mountain 45 m high and 30 m wide. Beyond the Treasury are hundreds of carved structures, soaring temples, elaborate royal tombs, a Roman theatre, houses, chambers. halls, water channels and reservoirs, baths, monumental staircases, arched gates, public buildings, paved streets and churches.

Day 11, Thursday 13 Dec

Our journey home

This morning we will drive the short distance to Aqaba Airport for the internal Royal Jordanian flight to Queen Alia International Airport in Amman. There we will take the connecting flight to Heathrow arriving mid-afternoon.