Quandary and quaternary

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While trying to find an interesting Q word for ABC Wednesday I happened upon QUATERNARY. 

Wikipedia explains that "The term quaternary care is also used sometimes as an extension of tertiary care in reference to medicine of advanced levels which are highly specialized and not widely accessed. Experimental medicine and some types of uncommon diagnostic or surgical procedures are considered quaternary care."

Sounds ominous already, no?

Some health experts think so, too, because I found this:

Quaternary prevention, first coined at Wonca world Hong Kong 1995 by M. Jamoulle & M.Roland, describes the protection of patients from diagnostic tests, interventions and treatments that offer no benefit for overall morbidity or mortality for the individual, and may cause physical or psychological harm.

The P4 concept pulls together all reflexive moves on the problems resulting from an excess of medical care, such as overscreening, overinvestigation, overprescription, and overtreatment.

 

 No direct relationship to quaternary (I hope!), but here you see the new Kupat Holim Clalit health center to which the gastroenterology (and other) specialists have now moved. 

It is on Bethlehem Road in Jerusalem and is called Lev Talpiot.

Ah, but the writing above the main door puts me in a quandary.
How can I find out why it says Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate  Jerusalem 2000  above the door to my new medical center?
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Mazal tov--a new Pope!

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Mazal tov -- congratulations!
A new Pope for the Coptic Orthodox Christians was chosen  yesterday in Egypt.
H.G. Bishop Tawadros' picture can be seen here.
He will soon become the spiritual leader of the Middle East’s largest Christian community, estimated at around 10 percent of  Egypt's population of 83 million.

And here is the video clip of the curious manner in which the pope is picked, by a blindfolded boy drawing out one of three names of the final candidates  written on a ball.

 This is a good opportunity to show you the Coptic liturgy I just by chance wandered into last August 22, which was St. Mary's Fast, down in the Church of Mary in Jerusalem.

Some 2,500 Copts live in Israel.

 Archbishop Dr. Anba Abraham is the Coptic Orthodox Metropolitan Archbishop of Jerusalem and the Near East.
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UPDATE: Archbishop Abraham died on November 25, 2015.  May his memory be a blessing.
UPDATE March 2016: Anba Antonius, the new Archbishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Jerusalem and the Near East. Antonius, who was appointed on February 27 in Cairo as the successor of the deceased Anba Abraham, is the twenty-second metropolitan archbishop of the city.   (see here about his welcome to Jerusalem)
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See more here: http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/post-biblical-period/what-is-coptic-and-who-were-the-copts-in-ancient-egypt/ 
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Ascension Day at Christendom's 2nd holiest site

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As I started telling you yesterday, Thursday was Ascension Day for the Orthodox churches.
It was my first time to see the very old Chapel of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives and to experience four different liturgies going on at once, each in a different language.

Photo opportunities were so plentiful, I don't know where to start!
Maybe we start with pictures of the processions, so you can have a better look at the interesting faces and vestments.

From time to time the Greeks or Armenians or Syrians or Copts would leave their area of the courtyard and walk in procession into the chapel.
(You remember, they are allowed to pray here but once a year by the Muslim owners, and each group sets up an awning or kind of tent for their hours-long liturgy.)

You always knew when a group was exiting the chapel by the rhythmic tapping of the kawas' ceremonial staff.
Since Ottoman Turk times, they lead the way and clear the way for the Christian clergy.
The Arab kaswassim will get a separate post in the coming days.
They are sort of like the Holy Land version of the Vatican's Swiss Guard.

Here come the Greek Orthodox.

(Click on any photo, and then again on the photo that opens, to enlarge it. Enjoy the rich detail.)


This Armenian was leading the choir of the seminary students.
There seems to be almost no spoken word in the Orthodox liturgies, only singing/chanting.

These star-shaped things with little bells were also beautiful to hear.

The very old Syrian Orthodox church still uses Aramaic (mixed with some Arabic) for their prayers.

Indeed, if you closed your eyes to the lay people in modern dress yesterday and just focused on the look and sound of the clergy, you could imagine you were far back in the earliest Christian centuries in Jerusalem.
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Awake, my soul! I will awake the dawn!

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Happy Pesach to Jews!
Happy Easter to Catholics and Protestants!
Happy Palm Sunday to Orthodox, Armenian, Syrian, and Coptic Christians!

Lots of celebrating going on.

But it is also PsalmChallenge day, like every Sunday, hosted by Robert at Daily Athens Photo and today we are on Psalm 57.

As a treat I offer you Psalm 57 chanted in the Coptic Orthodox way, but in English!



^1. To the choirmaster: according to Do Not Destroy. A Miktam of David, when he fled from Saul, in the cave.

Be merdiful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in thee my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of thy wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by.

^2. I cry to God Most High, to God who fulfils his purpose for me.

^3. He will send from heaven and save me, he will put to shame those who trample upon me. [Selah] God will send forth his steadfast love and his faithfulness!

^4. I lie in the midst of lions that greedily devour the sons of men; their teeth are spears and arrows, their tongues sharp swords.

^5. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let thy glory be over all the earth!

^6. They set a net for my steps; my soul was bowed down. They dug a pit in my way, but they have fallen into it themselves. [Selah]

^7. My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast! I will sing and make melody!

^8. Awake, my soul! Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn!

^9. I will give thanks to thee, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to thee among the nations.

^10. For thy steadfast love is great to the heavens, thy faithfulness to the clouds.

^11. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let thy glory be over all the earth!

UPDATE: Today's Jerusalem Post has a very interesting article about Egyptian Copts who are now here on Holy Week pilgrimage.

Apparently many of them now feel freer to come to Jerusalem since their pope died last month.
The leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt for four decades, Shenouda III was the spiritual leader of the Middle East’s largest Christian community (about 10% of the Egyptian population).
The late pope had issued an edict banning pilgrimages to Israel as long as Jerusalem is “occupied” by Israel.

Most of the hundreds of Coptic Orthodox pilgrims are elderly peasants who for the most part live impoverished lives back in Egypt and their pilgrimage costs a lifetime of savings.

I also learn from the article that the ancient Coptic liturgy is in the language that was the language of Egypt before the Arab conquest of the Nile Delta.
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