Sunrise over the Golan Heights across the Sea of Galilee. An early moment of quiet with my feet washed by the Sea and the fish clustering around the shore. Jesus became real at that point, looking out over the freshwater sea in Galilee, uncertain how but knowing what he had to do, pulled from this quiet beauty into the world of human pain to preach and teach.

We began our day in Galilee at Mensa Christi, a dark basalt church on the shore of the lake where the resurrected Jesus is said to have appeared to the disciples as they fished – guiding them to a great haul of fish and sharing breakfast with them. This is where Jesus asked Paul if he loved Him three times and gave the instruction – feed my sheep. A beautiful sculpture shows this story by the beach and heart shaped stones lead to the Sea. In the church and just outside on the beach are slabs of rock which are said to be where Jesus stood, and the rock crevices are stuffed with paper prayers like the Western wall.

A plaque at the site shows Luke 5:5 and offers this prayer:
The deeds and miracles of Jesus are not actions of the past . Jesus is waiting for those who are still prepared to take risks at His word because they trust His power utterly.

From there we went to Capernaum – the Jewish name means village of rest. This is where there is good evidence that Jesus stayed in the house of Peter. The house remains – at least some stone walls – and around them a first century church and around that a second century church and on top of the whole site a twentieth century church, the latter built on pillars which allow a view of the temporary home of Jesus through a glass floor at the centre of this round glass and concrete church.

Close by are the reconstructed remains of a first century synagogue in which Jesus must have preached, the dark basalt stones forming a lower layer to a later synagogue built of limestone. Both were reconstructed after an earthquake.

At the entrance to the site at Capernaum a strong bronze statue of St Peter.

Then to the church on the Mount of the Beatitudes at Tabgeh, where a new Benedictine monastery is planned. We visited the circular church surrounded in the cupola by glass inscribed with the Beatitudes in Latin. Toby read them to us in English outside that holy place .

Soon we were off to the Church of the Loaves and Fishes, where candles burned before icons of Mary and Jesus as a baby and the adult Jesus. We lit candles.

We were then led to an outside church with logs for pews and a stone altar with a backdrop of the Sea of Galilee – such a breathtakingly peaceful spot as the wind caressed the palms around us and produced crests on the water.

We celebrated the Eucharist with Liz leading, Frank read, I gave the intercessions and Paul served with Liz. Within the service we renewed baptismal vows, making the sign of the cross at the altar with water from the Sea of Galilee.

This was an emotional time as Stephen and Liz were saying an early farewell to Burwash and Etchingham parishes. This is our last service on the pilgrimage and it would be hard to describe the feelings of the group.

We returned to the Mount of the Beatitudes where we were served a delicious lunch of spaghetti, mezze, St Peters fish and chips from the Sea, and fresh dates.

Then a brief visit to a kibbutz on the shore of the Sea, where we saw a 2000 year old boat which had been found and lovingly salvaged and preserved.

Finally the climax of the pilgrimage as we boarded the “Jesus boat” and sailed across the Sea of Galilee together. The wind was strong, coming through the canyon and making it easy to imagine the sudden storm, as we heard the Bible reading of Jesus on the disciples’ boat. Stephen sang I theLord of sea and sky, that hymn is unlikely to sound the same again.

Then there was music, we did a Jewish simple dance on deck and our spirits were lifted. We sailed across to our hotel and left the boat with a sense of completion. Our pilgrimage is nearly done – tomorrow we have the historical ruins of Jerash, then Amman before our return the next day.