Hope in a Hopeless Land – the village of Aboud

(From 4 March 2012) Today was an early start to head up through the fog and pouring rain up to the village of Aboud – a small little village that is becoming more and more isolated and cut off from the outside world. We were lucky enough to go to church in Aboud. The choice was between a Latin Catholic church and an Evangelical Church. I was able to go to the Latin Catholic Church where mass was in Arabic. The priest in charge – Abunah Joseph, was a hospitable, friendly man. The service was an interesting mix of old and new traditions. It was celebrated in Arabic according to Vatican II right, but mst of the congregation self-segregated – women on the right, men on the left. Abunah Josephl said it was a carryover from the Muslims in Aboud – a village that is fairly equally divided between Christians and Muslims. Abunah Joseph is against the self-segregation, but he says it’s incredibly difficult to change the people’s old habits. One of the interesting things about Aboud is that while it had it’s own well, the Israeli Army has cut off Aboud from its own well and the villagers of Aboud have had to steal their own water – something that is fairly inconceivable to Western minds.

Our second stop was the Orthodox church – the Dormition of Theotokos Church – with numerous icons of Saint George, who is incredibly prevalent throughout Israel & Palestine. More on that and the priest, Abunah Emmanuel, later.


I am experiencing a bit of a strange culture shock here – not between US culture and Israel/Palestine, but amongst the evangelical Christians. It is a context, a culture that is mostly foreign to me. I don’t know whether I could categorize them as liberal or conservative. Many are democrats, against Glenn Beck and Fox News, but then many are anti-choice (though, at least they are also anti-death penalty). Only one or two are favorable towards the ordination of openly gay and lesbian clergy. But the Christian rock music, the sharing of testimonies – that isn’t part of my tradition, my narrative. I don’t have the biblical knowledge (and quote retrieval) that these folks do and yet I hold a Master of Divinity. It's a very odd place to be.