Holidays, Holy Days and Pilgrimages
Holidays are special times when we break out of our normal routines. It is when we can be open to new experiences of nature, of wonder, of culture, of spirituality.
We ask members of Woden Valley Uniting Church community to reflect on their holidays and share with us here some of their experiences and questions.
From Sally Phillips and John Campbell on a trip to Norway
In July-August John and I travelled the length of the Norwegian coast on the Hurtigruten ship Nordnorge.
During a shore excursion, above the Arctic Circle, we visited Trondenes, where there is a little mediaeval church, built between 1188 and 1440, and still in use today.
The pastor of the church invited us to join her in a short service while we were there. Our group comprised English, German and French speakers, so each in our own language we sang the hymn "Praise to the Lord" and said the Lord's Prayer, with the pastor leading us in Norwegian.
It was a very special, spiritual experience.
The photos show the original mediaeval triptychs, and our group preparing for the service.
From Anne McKernan on a trip to the Northern Territory
We were told by the tour guide that this painting (Lightning Man) is 20,000 years old. I just stood and thought how lucky I am to be able to visit this site. I just kept marvelling about looking at something that is so old.
I had seen other rock paintings around Uluru 25 years ago and I did not feel that I had the right to photograph them. There were other paintings at Kakadu that we were not able to photograph either, but it was a privilege to be there to see them.
We stopped at the termite nests on the way to Litchfield National Park. The termite nests in the photo are magnetic and all facing the same way. It looks like a cemetery to me. The workers and soldiers are blind and have a short lifespan of 1 – 2 years. They spend their lives working to build the mounds.
The water falls at Litchfield are beautiful and while I was wondering where all the water came from, we were told it comes from underground. Amazing. I think that the photo is Florence Falls. There were many people swimming there. Not me!
Darwin is known for its sunsets and it did not disappoint us. We had dinner at the Sailing Club and watched this beautiful sky. It was the first cloudy day we had but I think that it made the sunset all the more beautiful.
From Stephen Brand on visiting Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia
The Anatolian peninsular and the Caucuses which we visited are cradles of “Christian civilization”. However, I am not sure how much of this Christianity we would recognise now, except the worship of the one God, and the stories of the birth of Christ and his life which form the basis of Christianity and are features of all the frescoes. These first centuries were overwhelmingly violent and murderous times. It is hard to separate the ambitions of rulers from their claim to Christian values. Indeed, it is hard to discern Christian values during the times of these immense power struggles. The constant rivalry and war between religions seems much more about the hunger for power and dominance and trade routes than about what they believed or did not believe. Many unholy alliances were struck between competing belief systems to save cities from attack and ruin and to keep kings, emperors or empresses in power. This trip through these countries opened my eyes to a history I was not familiar with and raised fascinating questions, such as is it possible to have a Christian empire or state? Why would you confess to belief in Christianity and gouge out your enemy’s eyes or behead them? Or indeed why murder thousands of your own citizens?
These two photos are of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Completed in 537CE by the Byzantium Christian Emperor, Justinian 1, it was the Christian Cathedral of Constantinople and the largest internal structure in the world at the time. It was the centre of the Eastern Orthodox church for over 1000 years. It became a Mosque in 1453 until 1935 under the Ottomans and then a museum. It has recently again been designated as a Mosque by the current Turkish government. Now only Muslims are allowed onto the main floor. My photos of the interior show its size and splendour.
The rock-cut City of Vardzia in southern Georgia is a testament to the ingenuity of Christian kings and queens of the 12th and 13th century. It’s many levels, churches and monasteries, living quarters, wineries etc were excavated into the mountain to protect the Christians from marauding tribes from the north and east and the Muslims from the south. It had over 500 cave rooms and was dominated by fifteen churches within its 3.5km length. It was eventually sacked by the Ottomans in the 1500s and was abandoned. There is a practicing monastery again situated in the caves.
If you look closely at the top photo, you will see a church on the summit of the closer mountain to the left. This is the 14th century Tsminda Sameba Church known as Gergeti Trinity Church. It is near the town of Stepantsminda in the Great Caucasus Mountains. The second photo is from the other direction. It was said that the higher the mountain on which a church is built, the closer to God. It is still a practicing Georgian Orthodox church. On the Sunday we visited a special liturgy was being practiced by heavily gowned priests.
The Etchmiadzin Cathedral is in the centre of the governing quarter of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Armenia, just south of the capital of Yerevan. Its construction is dated to the 4th and 5th centuries CE. The Armenian kings of the 4th century CE declared Armenia a Christian country, the first to do so. I include this photo as a way of reporting the comments of both our Georgian and Armenian Guides. Both were highly educated young people and loyal to their country. The Georgian guide had recently protested the current government in protests that turned violent. Both guides commented on the importance of the orthodox Christian tradition and culture to their countries; both indicated their loyalty to its position in current society. But both indicated they were not attending their church and had little time for the current governing hierarchy. They explained their serious concern about the closeness of senior church figures to the government of the day which they considered to be compromised.
The ancient cathedral of Zvartnots is in the same vicinity as the Etchmiadzin Cathedral. It was built on old pagan temples and was commenced in 643CE but was later damaged and ruined by invaders and earthquakes. It must have been an impressive structure.