Preparing lunch at Mar Moussa 
Me and the girls when we were leaving
Our crowd on the final day
The amazing Mar Moussa Monastery from above
And another one from the other side!
After two crazy days in Manchester on November 2nd and 3rd I went to London on the 4th to join two colleagues from BibleLands in a meeting at Victoria. After spending the night with friends David and Robert I flew early on the 5th to Beirut via Paris. With three hours in transit at CDG I did not arrive in Lebanon until 7pm in the evening but Raif Shwayri was there to meet me and in no time at all we were cruising through the Beirut traffic and up the hills to Baabda.
I knew that the Shwayris lived in style but I had not realised just how stylish! I dined like a Lord on both Thursday and Friday evenings, courtesy of their Philipino house keeper. During the day on Friday Raif and I enjoyed a perfect leisurely mezze at Raouche - the pigeon rocks - overlooking the med on a day that any European could have mistaken for the middle of August. It was hot! Raif left me at the Bay Rock Cafe and I spent a lazy few hours wandering through Hamra before taking an overprice taxi back up the hills in the worst teatime traffic I have seen for a long long time. I was last in Beirut in 2004 and the pollution and the gridlock is worse than ever.
On Saturday morning after bacon and eggs, Raif drove me over to the main road to Damascus and we immediately found a shared minibus going to Chtaura near Zahle. A friendly passenger decided to look after me and arranged a place for me in a shared taxi from Chtaura to the border at Masnaa. I suppose we waited about half an hour before the car filled up and we were soon steaming up the hill towards the border. It was all very straightforward - both leaving Lebanon and entering Syria. I had heard that it could take up to two hours for Europeans to get a visa at the Syrian border but either the reports were wrong or I was lucky. I paid my $52 and in no time at all my passport was stamped and we were in Syria! We had left Chtaura at 10.30am and by 12 noon we were on the outskirts of Damascus. The incredibly cheap shared taxis disappeared however, and before I had got the hang of the money I had been well and truly ripped off by a taxi driver taking me into the city centre. It cost me 1000 Syrian pounds (about 20 dollars) - three times the cost of the entire journey from Beirut! Never mind - I will not make the same mistake again. At the time I was managing four currencies in four different pockets - sterling, dollars, Lebanese pounds and Syrian pounds.
With the help of Lonely Planet I very soon found a cheap hotel - Al Haramein - in the Souk Saroujeh. It has got to be seen to be believed. It claims to have been built in 1200 and who knows? My room on the second floor was accessed by the most rickety staircase I have ever ascended and you really felt that it could come away from the wall at any moment. The whole place was full of atmosphere and the staff could not have been more friendly. I would certainly recommend it and indeed use it again!
On Saturday evening I went in search of Metropolitan Matta Roham - a senior Bishop in the Syrian Orthodox Church who I have met before through BibleLands. BL has given his church a grant in the past and they have just applied for funding for another project. One of the reasons for visiting Syria is to check out his community in Hassake in the north east of the country. I had spoken to Bishop Matta in the afternoon and went in search of the Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate in the Christian Quarter of the Old City. I soon found it and then realised that I had been there before - on my first visit to Syria in 1999 with a CMS group from Wales. Bishop Matta is charming and we had tea in the Patriarch's throne room while he showed me the latest pictures of his church and school in Hassake via his new site on Facebook! Facebook is banned in Syria but can be easily accessed through a proxy in Saudi Arabia! All very bizarre......
I arranged to join him in church the following morning and left for a slow meander through the streets of the Old City, calling at a wonderful coffee shop near the walls of the Omayyad Mosque where I whiled away an hour in the company of a nargilah.
On Sunday morning I had breakfast and got a taxi back to the Christian Quarter in plenty of time for the beginning of the liturgy at 9am. The service lasted just over an hour and a half - most of it conducted in Aramaic -the language of Christ. The sermon lasted about half an hour and was given in arabic by Bishop Matta. It was a Mass and I assumed that I should not receive communion but the Bishop beckoned me forward and adminstered me himself. This is the first time I have ever received communion in any branch of the Orthodox Church and it was a great privilege.
After the service there was coffee and I was introduced to a number of people before making my goodbyes and heading back across the city. I collected my bags from Al Haramein and took a taxi to the Abaseen Bus Station to find a bus to Nebek - the town nearest to Mar Moussa - which is the other real reason that I have come to Syria.
I had heard about Mar Moussa in Manchester from one of my interfaith colleagues. It has quite a reputation for encouraging interfaith dialogue in Syria and happens to be located in a 6th century monastery in the Syrian desert. I knew at once that I wanted to visit it for many reasons but including my need for a retreat in the middle of this sabbatical.
And so on Sunday afternoon I took a minibus from Damascus to Nebek where the guide book told me that I would be dropped off and need to negotiate a special taxi. But having dropped off the rest of the passengers, the driver just kept going until he got to the foot of the mountain where Mar Moussa is located. I was about to thank him for this wonderful act of generosity when he informed me that it would cost me 350 Syrian pounds (about 7 dollars). There really is no such thing as a free lunch and I paid up without quibbling.
Although I had seen photos of Mar Moussa on the website the reality is far more breathtaking. It can only be accessed by a steep path that would take the fittest of people about 15 minutes. As I was carrying my months luggage in a totally inappropriate suitcase (NOBODY goes to Mar Moussa with a suitcase) it took me about 40 minutes in the hot afternoon sun to make the ascent. Fortunately I had arrived at the same time as Derek - a guy from Seattle who is cycling around Syria. He was in no rush to get to the top so I had company all the way.
When we finally got to the top we made our way into the central part of the monastery through two impossibly low doorways - reminscent of the entrance to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. We were made welcome by David - a volunteer from Damascus- and were soon show to our rooms carved out of the rock further up the mountain side. And so this was my base for Monday and Tuesday until leaving after breakfast on Wednesday.
Both days I followed a similar pattern, joining the community for prayers at 7.30am; breakfast about 9; some reading in the morning followed by a walk before lunch; more reading and resting in the afternoon; evening prayers at 7 took the form of a short liturgy followed by a hours silence. Supper did not happen until about 9 and bed came soon after.
I was there for nearly three full days. It does not sound very long but it was a very good time and gave me enough space to slow down and do some serious thinking and praying. I came away feeling very refreshed and renewed by the time. The community is fascinating. It was founded in the 1980s by Father Paolo, an Italian Jesuit with a passion for interfaith dialogue and desert spirituality. I did not get to meet him as he was away most of the time that I was there. Around him he has built up a community of nine monks and nuns, all Syrian bar one Swiss member, firmly rooted in the Syrian Catholic tradition. The services are all conducted in Arabic and are a mixture of ancient aramaic liturgy and recognisable Catholic prayers - just like the Syrian Catholic church itself. As well as the committed core community members there are a number of Syrian and foreign aspirants and volunteers - including at the moment a guy from Brittany, just beginning his third year there, and another guy from Virginia.
I knew that the Shwayris lived in style but I had not realised just how stylish! I dined like a Lord on both Thursday and Friday evenings, courtesy of their Philipino house keeper. During the day on Friday Raif and I enjoyed a perfect leisurely mezze at Raouche - the pigeon rocks - overlooking the med on a day that any European could have mistaken for the middle of August. It was hot! Raif left me at the Bay Rock Cafe and I spent a lazy few hours wandering through Hamra before taking an overprice taxi back up the hills in the worst teatime traffic I have seen for a long long time. I was last in Beirut in 2004 and the pollution and the gridlock is worse than ever.
On Saturday morning after bacon and eggs, Raif drove me over to the main road to Damascus and we immediately found a shared minibus going to Chtaura near Zahle. A friendly passenger decided to look after me and arranged a place for me in a shared taxi from Chtaura to the border at Masnaa. I suppose we waited about half an hour before the car filled up and we were soon steaming up the hill towards the border. It was all very straightforward - both leaving Lebanon and entering Syria. I had heard that it could take up to two hours for Europeans to get a visa at the Syrian border but either the reports were wrong or I was lucky. I paid my $52 and in no time at all my passport was stamped and we were in Syria! We had left Chtaura at 10.30am and by 12 noon we were on the outskirts of Damascus. The incredibly cheap shared taxis disappeared however, and before I had got the hang of the money I had been well and truly ripped off by a taxi driver taking me into the city centre. It cost me 1000 Syrian pounds (about 20 dollars) - three times the cost of the entire journey from Beirut! Never mind - I will not make the same mistake again. At the time I was managing four currencies in four different pockets - sterling, dollars, Lebanese pounds and Syrian pounds.
With the help of Lonely Planet I very soon found a cheap hotel - Al Haramein - in the Souk Saroujeh. It has got to be seen to be believed. It claims to have been built in 1200 and who knows? My room on the second floor was accessed by the most rickety staircase I have ever ascended and you really felt that it could come away from the wall at any moment. The whole place was full of atmosphere and the staff could not have been more friendly. I would certainly recommend it and indeed use it again!
On Saturday evening I went in search of Metropolitan Matta Roham - a senior Bishop in the Syrian Orthodox Church who I have met before through BibleLands. BL has given his church a grant in the past and they have just applied for funding for another project. One of the reasons for visiting Syria is to check out his community in Hassake in the north east of the country. I had spoken to Bishop Matta in the afternoon and went in search of the Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate in the Christian Quarter of the Old City. I soon found it and then realised that I had been there before - on my first visit to Syria in 1999 with a CMS group from Wales. Bishop Matta is charming and we had tea in the Patriarch's throne room while he showed me the latest pictures of his church and school in Hassake via his new site on Facebook! Facebook is banned in Syria but can be easily accessed through a proxy in Saudi Arabia! All very bizarre......
I arranged to join him in church the following morning and left for a slow meander through the streets of the Old City, calling at a wonderful coffee shop near the walls of the Omayyad Mosque where I whiled away an hour in the company of a nargilah.
On Sunday morning I had breakfast and got a taxi back to the Christian Quarter in plenty of time for the beginning of the liturgy at 9am. The service lasted just over an hour and a half - most of it conducted in Aramaic -the language of Christ. The sermon lasted about half an hour and was given in arabic by Bishop Matta. It was a Mass and I assumed that I should not receive communion but the Bishop beckoned me forward and adminstered me himself. This is the first time I have ever received communion in any branch of the Orthodox Church and it was a great privilege.
After the service there was coffee and I was introduced to a number of people before making my goodbyes and heading back across the city. I collected my bags from Al Haramein and took a taxi to the Abaseen Bus Station to find a bus to Nebek - the town nearest to Mar Moussa - which is the other real reason that I have come to Syria.
I had heard about Mar Moussa in Manchester from one of my interfaith colleagues. It has quite a reputation for encouraging interfaith dialogue in Syria and happens to be located in a 6th century monastery in the Syrian desert. I knew at once that I wanted to visit it for many reasons but including my need for a retreat in the middle of this sabbatical.
And so on Sunday afternoon I took a minibus from Damascus to Nebek where the guide book told me that I would be dropped off and need to negotiate a special taxi. But having dropped off the rest of the passengers, the driver just kept going until he got to the foot of the mountain where Mar Moussa is located. I was about to thank him for this wonderful act of generosity when he informed me that it would cost me 350 Syrian pounds (about 7 dollars). There really is no such thing as a free lunch and I paid up without quibbling.
Although I had seen photos of Mar Moussa on the website the reality is far more breathtaking. It can only be accessed by a steep path that would take the fittest of people about 15 minutes. As I was carrying my months luggage in a totally inappropriate suitcase (NOBODY goes to Mar Moussa with a suitcase) it took me about 40 minutes in the hot afternoon sun to make the ascent. Fortunately I had arrived at the same time as Derek - a guy from Seattle who is cycling around Syria. He was in no rush to get to the top so I had company all the way.
When we finally got to the top we made our way into the central part of the monastery through two impossibly low doorways - reminscent of the entrance to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. We were made welcome by David - a volunteer from Damascus- and were soon show to our rooms carved out of the rock further up the mountain side. And so this was my base for Monday and Tuesday until leaving after breakfast on Wednesday.
Both days I followed a similar pattern, joining the community for prayers at 7.30am; breakfast about 9; some reading in the morning followed by a walk before lunch; more reading and resting in the afternoon; evening prayers at 7 took the form of a short liturgy followed by a hours silence. Supper did not happen until about 9 and bed came soon after.
I was there for nearly three full days. It does not sound very long but it was a very good time and gave me enough space to slow down and do some serious thinking and praying. I came away feeling very refreshed and renewed by the time. The community is fascinating. It was founded in the 1980s by Father Paolo, an Italian Jesuit with a passion for interfaith dialogue and desert spirituality. I did not get to meet him as he was away most of the time that I was there. Around him he has built up a community of nine monks and nuns, all Syrian bar one Swiss member, firmly rooted in the Syrian Catholic tradition. The services are all conducted in Arabic and are a mixture of ancient aramaic liturgy and recognisable Catholic prayers - just like the Syrian Catholic church itself. As well as the committed core community members there are a number of Syrian and foreign aspirants and volunteers - including at the moment a guy from Brittany, just beginning his third year there, and another guy from Virginia.
But perhaps most surprising is that Mar Moussa has become a must see stop on the backpackers tour around Syria. The visitors during my time there included Derek the Seattle cyclist, Kelly from San Francisco, Samera - a German/Palestinian currently studying arabic in Damascus, Patrick who is walking from Switzerland to Bethlehem, another Swiss guy on his way to Ethiopia, three delightful people from South Korea, Sandrine from Paris - and so it goes on! Fascinating and fun people all of them - I had forgotten how many interesting people you meet when travelling.
Mar Moussa has clearly found a niche as the Taize of Syria - though the comparison is not really valid. Raphael, the French volunteer, answered many of my questions and said that acceptance by and integration with the local church is the most pressing concern for the community. I came away very impressed with the place and determined to visit again.
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