I was sitting minding my own business this morning when an email arrived asking "Have you considered taking a group to Israel?" Given the events of the past 2 weeks, especially the attempt by the Irish ship MV Rachel Corrie to break the Gaza blockade, I thought it was a joke... but it wasn't. It was another of the invitations I (and every other cleric in world) receives regularly inviting me to a subsidised trip to the "Holy Land" to "walk in the footsteps of Jesus" or "experience the Bible come to life" in the hope that I will then round up another pilgrim band to go back for seconds, thus making the travel company (and the Israeli economy) more money. I have often considered taking advantage of one of these offers, but have never found the appropriate time... And this is certainly not the appropriate time... Not unless the tour is substantially more than a pseudo-spiritual package holiday... Whilst I would love to see the historic remains ...
Dialogues, monologues, sketches, poems, rants, theological and liturgical bits and bobs and miscellaneous other verbal doodles...