While most Western church leaders observed Holy Week from their own pulpits, the Rt Revd Julian Dobbs, Dean of the Anglican Church in North America and Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of the Living Word, was in Jerusalem — filming a daily video series from the Gospel sites and leading the collects of the Book of Common Prayer from the streets where they were first lived.
The series was published by Christ Church Jerusalem and the ACNA’s own YouTube and Facebook channels across the week, each episode filmed on location at a site corresponding to the events of that liturgical day. On Holy Wednesday, Dobbs filmed at the Mount of Olives. On Maundy Thursday, he stood in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Bishop Dobbs introduced the series in direct, pastoral terms. “I’m here in Jerusalem, Israel, where it’s both Passover and Easter,” he said in the Holy Wednesday episode. “Over the coming days, I invite you to journey with me through these very sacred days of Holy Week. Already it has been Palm Sunday and the events of Monday and Tuesday in Jerusalem, where Jesus was confronted by the religious leaders. It is now Wednesday in Holy Week, as we prepare ourselves for the very sacred days of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Saturday. I invite you to journey with me through these days. We will consider the events that took place here in Jerusalem and pray the collects that are set aside in our own Book of Common Prayer.”
He then led the Wednesday collect: “Assist us mercifully with your grace, Lord God of our salvation, that we may enter with joy upon the meditation of those mighty acts by which you have promised us life and immortality through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.”
The Maundy Thursday episode from the Garden of Gethsemane was the most substantial of the series. Standing among the olive trees outside the city, Dobbs moved from the Last Supper to the arrest in a single continuous meditation, grounding each moment in the geography around him. “Jesus has been in Jerusalem with the disciples and he has instituted in that very sacred meal the sacramental feast of Holy Communion,” he said. “And in the midst of the meal, he has stood up, washed the feet of his disciples, thus establishing for us the model of servant leadership, reminding us always first to serve and only then to lead. And at the conclusion of the meal, he comes here outside of the city amongst the olive trees to the Garden of Gethsemane.”
He cited Matthew’s account directly. “Matthew records it for us in his gospel: ‘And going a little farther, he fell on his face and prayed, saying, My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.'” Then, drawing the application: “And there, Jesus reminds us the Lenten call to daily deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him. Because before we go to the place of execution, we too must yield more of ourself to him, so that he become greater and we become less.”
He led the two Maundy Thursday collects from the Book of Common Prayer: “Almighty and everlasting God, in your tender love for us, you sent your Son, Jesus Christ, to take upon himself our nature and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the great example of his great humility. Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering and come to share in his resurrection through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.” And: “Almighty Father, whose most dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the sacrament of his body and blood, mercifully grant that we may receive it in thankful remembrance of Jesus Christ, our Saviour, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.”
He closed the Maundy Thursday episode with a phrase from 1 Corinthians: “Be watchful, stand fast in the faith, act like men, and let all that you do be done in love.”
The series was produced in partnership with Christ Church Jerusalem, the historic evangelical Anglican congregation in the Old City founded in 1849. The church is the oldest Protestant church in the Middle East and is one of the few Western Anglican congregations maintaining full programming in Jerusalem this Holy Week.