Three weeks ago at the epi-centre of Jewish history, the Wailing Wall, four women were unceremoniously evicted.
Like thousands of others they had arrived to pray but were quickly ushered away by Israeli police.
This holy place is strictly for men and their precinct had been invaded by four of the female gender.
Matter less that the women had arrived to engage in prayer, the Rabbis got their ringlets in a twist and called the cops.
They will get into even further knots in coming days. A Jewish high court has ruled that, in the interest of equal rights, the Wailing Wall must be open to both genders.
Concerning the Temple (of which the Wall is the last remnant) Jesus said "It was a House of Prayer for all people."
It has taken a long time for the message to get home but maybe a secular court will succeed, where many others have failed, in bringing the words of Christ to pass.
Maybe.
Ian
From Bayeux we are travelling to the site of the D.Day landings.
Juno, Gold, Omaha, Sword and Utah are sacred names in vernacular of the WW11 veterans.
There are thousands of men who did not return from what General Eisenhower called, "The Great Crusade".
They sleep under the green sward of the headlands above the English Channel. Their final resting places are marked by white grave-stones laid out in ranks of parade ground precision
Millions have made the pilgrimage to pay respect to these fallen heroes and shortly Mark and I will be among them.
Most of the freedoms we enjoy have been paid for in the currency of other men's blood: from the cross of Calvary, the blood of the martyrs, the English and American civil wars, to the fallen officers at Boston last week, invariably the price paid is human blood.
We will be conscious of this when we touch down in Caen next week.
Lest we forget.
Ian
From Vimy Ridge, Mark and I travel to the village of Bayeux to see what is arguably the greatest of all the ancient European artifacts.
It is the 210 foot long embroidered depiction of William the Conqueror's campaign to invade England in the year 1066.
The Bayeux tapestry took a small army of women artists three years to complete. It is now on display in the Bayeux museum having survived wars, revolutions and the depredations of art thieves.
In the French revolution, command was given to destroy the tapestry. It was considered to be a distasteful relic of a bygone aristocratic system that had no place in the new France.
Nuns spirited the tapestry away to a nearby convent.
In 1944 it had been stored in the Louvre gallery for safety. Herman Goering gave orders for it to be transported back to Germany as legitimate spoil of the Nazi conquest. Again the tapestry was successfully concealed until the occupation was over.
Now it is in it's rightful place in Bayeux, where it all began.
I was never a fan of King William, but I wholeheartedly applaud the ladies who stitched their way into history in Bayeux 950 years ago.
Jubilate.
Ian
