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Action Card Briefing - April 2004
Christians Aware The card for April is of the large cross on St Cuthbert’s Island, the small island off Lindisfarne, the holy island where St Cuthbert lived in the Seventh Century CE.
Pilgrimage is as old as people, for as long as they have been on the earth they have travelled to new places in search of something beyond themselves. Every faith has its pilgrimage traditions and its special places. Pilgrimage has always been distinguished by the pilgrims being ready to forsake everything, and to take great risks to travel, to be enlightened, to change and to be challenged. The pilgrim often faced uncertainty and worry. He or she was normally leaving a secure place and even family and friends to go to an unknown future. The pilgrim was vulnerable and exposed, facing the constant need to meet strangers, to share new cultures, difficult climates and lands. There were always new experiences, good and bad. There were great fears and especially fears of loss.
In the Christian tradition the challenge was sometimes to follow Abraham, always on the move for God, or to follow Moses, who moved for the liberation of the people.
A Christians Aware conference was held when one speaker told of his pilgrimage to Gaza, where he met people in refugee camps. He described their plight and his brief sharing with them. Their plight never left him and from that time he has always associated with the pilgrimages of the refugees, the unwilling and very vulnerable pilgrims of the world.
Bishop Riah Abu El Assal is the Bishop of Jerusalem. His ministry is to his people, the Palestinian people. Many suffer at home and many have travelled to new countries. Bishop Riah has called on Christians all over the world to be Simon of Cyrenes in 2004 and to walk in support of the people of the Middle East who are carrying crosses of suffering now.
Send your card this month to:
Bishop Riah Abu El Assal P O Box 19122 Jerusalem 91191, Israel Ask the Christians Aware office to supply Simon of Cyrene leaflets to support your prayer and action for the suffering pilgrims of the Middle East today.
Christians Aware, 2 Saxby Street, Leicester LE2 0ND
The Lindisfarne cross is not a tourist site but a reminder that Aiden, Cuthbert and the early monks of that place lived sacrificial lives for the people of a huge area they travelled to serve. The cross is a challenge to all Christians to travel, and like the early pilgrims, to be vulnerable.
Postage for postcards – 42 pence + airmail sticker.
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