CBE President Leads Tour To Asia Minor -- By: Terilynn Russ
Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 04:3 (Summer 1990)
Article: CBE President Leads Tour To Asia Minor
Author: Terilynn Russ
PP 4:3 Summer 1990) p. 7
CBE President Leads Tour To Asia Minor
Terilynn is a second year student at Asbury Theological Seminary. She is in the Master of Divinity program and is a certified candidate for the ordained ministry in the Louisiana Conference of the United Methodist Church. She is also a recipient of the Georgia Harkness Scholarship Award. Before her call into the ministry, Terilynn spend 13 years in radio-television broadcasting as a new reporter and anchorwoman.
Pictures taken during “The Apostle Paul and the Women of Asia Minor” tour can help me to remember the trip to Turkey, yet not one of the three by five photos can compare with the magnificent images imprinted on my mind. The tour was a wonderful experience! Dr. Catherine Kroeger, former chaplain and religious lecturer at Hamilton College, is to be commended for her sacrificial labor in organizing the study tour.
The dynamics of the tour group are worth a story in itself. Twenty seven women and three men comprised the most fascinating composition of women-in-ministry pacesetters. They were professors, noted authors, archaeologists, worldwide evangelists, retired missionaries, and founders of Christians for Biblical Equality. Everyone seemed to have unusual histories and experiences. The relationships formed and the friends made during the Turkey adventure will be treasured for years.
During the first two days of the tour, we crammed in the sights of Istanbul. We toured the Sultan’s Topkapi Palace and his harem quarters. We touched two original candle holders that Florence Nightingale held as she walked the hospital halls at the Selimize Barracks during the Crimean War. The church of Saint Sophia was particularly unusual. The sanctuary was changed into a mosque by the Muslims centuries ago. While it is being restored today, St. Sophia may still reveal hidden secrets about the formative years of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Cappadocia is considered the location of one of the first Christian communities in Turkey. It’s the birthplace of Macrina and her brothers Basil and Gregory. The Christian Cappadocians literally lived in hollowed caves. Their churches are more advanced than stone-age dwellings, however. They are regal with columns and remnants of mural paintings that still tell the story of Jesus Christ and his followers. One of my greatest memories of the trip is when the tour group broke into a song of praise inside one of the cave churches. It was as if the echoes of generations of Christians before us joined in our praising of God.
Catalhoyuk was an interesting archaeological site despite its weathering and neglect. This ruin is nine thousand years old, which is a great deal older than any civilization in the United States. It was a society ...
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