Holy Week in Izmir

Yesterday was Palm Sunday. It was good to be celebrating this in a church with palm trees outside; the Catholic Cathedral administrator brought us many (fresh, green) palm branches to decorate the church and to carry in our procession from the hall, as we walked around the church – shouting Hosanna! -before entering for the service. We had brought palm crosses with us from England (a bit like carrying coal to Newcastle, I suppose!) and distributed them to everyone. And, although the congregation is not large, they joined very positively in the crowd parts of the Passion reading. It felt a satisfying start to Holy Week. We were surprised during the Offertory hymn when the congregation more than doubled in size when a large group of young people (obviously on a walking tour) came in at the back of the church; they stayed, many taking photographs, for most of the Eucharistic Prayer - when they left as suddenly as they had arrived. Another indication of the interest many young Turkish people some to have towards Christianity.

Our plans for an afternoon boat ride across the Bay were frustrated. With the referendum on presidential power only a week away, the government AK Party are pulling out all the stops. Some of the streets and the waterfront are festooned with AKP flags, and the President was speaking on a huge stage set up the Cordon, which was out of bounds to visitors. Bus-loads of supporters were brought in from outlying parts (many in buses sponsored by local firms.) We saw crowds making their way to the assembly, which could be heard over a wide area. Restaurant owners must have been disgruntled, because many were out of bounds. The vote takes place next Sunday.

So we walked in Kulturpark (on the site of the former Armenian area, destroyed in the great fire of Izmir in 1922 – sadly there is no acknowledgement of this anywhere. Turkey is quite adept at airbrushing or ignoring its past.) It was nice to see a group of teenagers happily jiving to 1950 jazz music.

On Friday we ventured somewhere new. One of the Iranian members lives as Manisa (in line with government policy to assign refugees to specific towns, to avoid over-concentration in large cities.) It’s accessible by train, so we went, to see her, and to visit this town, which was an important centre of learning in Ottoman period. There are some lovely, well-restored buildings, including a former hospital now turned into a medical museum. It was informative, with panels in Turkish and (pretty good) English; there were some gruesome displays of surgical instruments, and tableaux of procedures. Ottoman medicine apparently included music therapy – something which has only recently come on the scene in Europe – and some innovative medicine. Manisa is famous for its paste made of a mixture of 41 herbs and spices. We bought a tube, and will test its therapeutic powers. A mountain-range towers over the town; at the top of a river, which runs down through the town is ‘Niobe’s Rock’. Readers of Ovid may remember the tale of how Apollo and Artemis took vengeance on Niobe for her hubris in boasting about her children; they were killed by the gods, and Niobe’s tears continue to flow, though her head has been petrified!

Now we prepare for the rest of Holy Week – which of course makes little impact on Turkish society and shops; so there are no Hot-cross buns, or Easter eggs (or bunnies) in the shops. We hope a few church members will be able to attend a Good Friday service at 2.00pm (but other churches have evening services for those who are working.) There are not enough people to support Maundy Thursday or Easter Eve services, I fear. We’ll be taking home communions to a few people. We finished our Bible Study on Ephesians last week, so we will do a one-off one for Holy Week. And then Easter Sunday will be our last engagement before we pack up and return to the UK and our family.

Please pray:

For protection of Christians this week; (there have been few attacks on churches in Turkey, but the dreadful incidents in Egypt may provoke others.)

For our final services at St John’s.

For the future of the church, as the appointment process of a permanent chaplain continues.

For safe and easy leave-taking and return to the UK.