Tantur April 2014 newsletter
Monthly newsletter from #Palestine/#Israel, the Tantur Ecumenical Center
As I check my email and Facebook page this Holy Friday, I can see that my family back home in the American state of Minnesota are going to have a wintery Easter, with nearly a foot of snow in some places. A far cry from the beautiful spring weather that we have been experiencing at Tantur since the start of the month!
Great Lent began with a hint of rain, continuing throughout March and into April with unseasonably cool daytime temperatures. The result has been that our garden is in bloom, but we can still sit in the warm sun without a hint of discomfort.
Easter is now here, and with it, members of every Christian church have converged on Jerusalem for Holy Week. Just walking down the streets of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, one is astounded by the diversity of pilgrims: Coptic Egyptians here, Swedish Lutherans there, Romanian nuns to the side, a Filipino Catholic procession straight ahead. It is a remarkable experience like none other, one that the program participants and community of Tantur have played their part in for many years. We are blessed to do so once again in 2014; may God continue to bless us in the years to come.