Rabbis and bishops in hospital ‘thank-you’ tour
JEWISH AND Christian leaders including Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby will walk or run to hospitals to offer their thanks as part of a series of “virtual pilgrimages”.
The “pilgrimages”, in which the ministers will be paired up with other religious leaders for simultaneous walks and make short videos at every stop, have been organised by the Council of Christians and Jews.
Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg is kicking off proceedings tonight, when he will run from his home in north London to the Royal
Free, University College Hospital, Great Ormond
Street and the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery.
Wittenberg and (right) W elby
“Here are these people on the front line, health workers, undertakers, trying to bury our dead with dignity. People in food shops stacking shelves, taking things to food banks. And I was thinking, what can I contribute? One thing I can do is express appreciation,” said Rabbi Wittenberg, who came up with the idea of the virtual pilgrimage, which was quickly taken up by the CCJ.
He will stop to make a short video at each location and offer a prayer. “I am thinking of putting into a few words my particular gratitude to each hospital and place I visit, based on people I know who care and who have been cared for there, including now during Covid-19, then adding some verse from the Psalms or the Siddur,”
said Rabbi Wittenberg. Rabbi Wittenberg is paired with the Rev Colin Sinclair, the moderator for the Church of Scotland, who will visit hospitals and care homes near his home in Edinburgh during his walk. Others taking part will be Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Catholic archbishop of Westminster, and Ephraim Mirvis, the Chief Rabbi. The first stop for Rabbi Wittenberg will be at Whitestone Pond in Hampstead, where he will meet Micah Gold, a member of his community who has been taking large quantities of food to food banks and hospitals. “This is about consciousnessraising. I really hope it will bring attentiveness to Chesed in our society. And that it’s something that we’ll hold on to. I’m hoping it will represent a concerted effort by religious leaders – it’s a way of marking an agenda. And a way of saying thank you.”