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Eucharistic Celebration of 800
years of The Family of Carmel, religious and Secular, and many from all over UK and beyond gathered in the historic City of York in the breathtaking 1000 years old York Minster. The Carmelite Way of Life was gifted to the community of brothers by St. Albert the Patriarch of Jerusalem in 1214 just before his death. This same rule is applied kept by the community of Carmel to-day. The UK Family of Carmel were truly inspired by the presence of the chief celebrant in York Minster of Michel Sabbah, current Patriarch of Jerusalem and the successor of St. Albert. The celebration was one of many taking place around the world in 2007. Michel Sabbah was born in Nazareth in 1933 and ordained priest in 1955. A scholar in the Arabic Language he presented his doctoral thesis at the Sorbonne University in 1971. A former president of Bethlehem university he was also appointed Canon of the Holy Sepulchre in 1985. He welcomed Pope John Paul to the Holy Land in 2000. Since 1999 he has been president of Pax Christi International.
At the end of the Ceremony, ten Peace
Lamps gifted from Taybeh, a Palestinian village 30 kilometres from
Jerusalem, were received by Carmelite representatives from
communities around the UK. Picture below shows Patriarch Michel
Sabbah with former President of the Dundee Secular Carmel, Helen Wylie who
received the peace lamp on behalf of Carmelites of Scotland.
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