ARCHDEACON ABROAD.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17977, 24 March 1930, Page 6

ARCHDEACON ABROAD.

STORY OF PILGRIMAGE. JERUSALEM IMPRESSIONS. ADDRESS TO CHURCHMEN. Graphic impressions of his visit to Jerusalem last year were given by the Ven. Archdeacon Mac Murray, of Auckland, addressing members of the Church of England Men’s Society who attended a service in the Cathedral yesterday afternoon. When the Archdeacon arrived in Jerusalem it was the Thursday before Easter in Passion Week, and a service was being held at the Garden of Gelhsemane. That evening there were four churches on the Mount of Olives at which services were being held. There was the Roman Catholic Church, just outside the entrance to the garden; the Greek Church, where singers could be heard with extremely powerful musical voices; the Armenian Church; and lastly, the Anglican Church, which stood in a remote •part of the grounds. Scone of Calvary. On Good Friday the Archdeacon visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the traditional site of the resurrection of Christ. Speaking frankly, he said he found difficulty in visualising this place of worship as identical with that •'described in the New Testament. A spot just outside the Damascus Gate seemed lo bear out faithfully the story of the Bible in connection with the Crucifixion. Here there was a knoll on the face of which were two caves, so that from a distance it had the appearance of a skull. There was a beautiful garden adjoining it, and it was not hard to picture it as ihe scene of Calvary. “Early on Easter morning we went to the. British war cemetery, on the slopes of the Mount of Olives, where a little chapel stands," the Archdeacon continued. “Inside I was struck by a representation of the New Zealand fern leaf, and I was later told that the New Zealand Government had donated all the decorations as a memorial to our boys who were included in the 3500 odd lying there. One thing that impressed me greatly was a picture above the altar of the empty tomb, with two ango’.s standing by- That message of Easter, .and all it meant, was an assurance to me that those 3500 lying there were truly alive.” Later on Easter Day the Archdeacon visited the Anglican Cathedral at Jerusalem, where there were gathered together people of all countries, and some of the highest in the land. In the afternoon he walked across the Mount of Olives to the village of Bethane, and gazed upon the city as Christ had done when he wept for it. Thoughts crowded upon him in that hallowed spot. Jews at Wailing Wall. Probably the most pathetic sight which met the eyes of the Archdeacon during his travels through the Holy Laud was the lamentation of the Jews at the Wailing Wall. The disturbances between the Jews and the Mohammedans had been proceeding while they were at Jerusalem, but he had not really known about what had happened until he left, and saw a newspaper elsewhere. It was exextremely pitiful to see hundreds of Jewls, who had been attacked and were expecting another assault, wailing and weeping in great grief. “While in the Holy Land I avoided official guides, who tell all sorts _of fairy tales to strangers, and carrying only a Bible and a book about Jerusalem, I visited ’all the places I wanted to see," added the Archdeacon. “I came away with a deep conviction of the reality of Chrisl’s history. The divinity of Christ came to me as something that was absolutely unchallengeable, and my faith was thus much strengthened.” •The service cit the Cathedral, "whic-i was fairly well attended, was conducted by" the Very Rev Dean Barnett. Mr W. B. L- Williams contributed a solo, “Out of the Deep I Call," and Mr S. B. 'Sims acted as organist.