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Dr Hagopian speaks on plight of Christians in Holy Land


Dr Harry Hagopian

Dr Harry Hagopian

Ahead of a major conference focusing on Christians in the Holy Land, Dr Harry Hagopian, the Bishops' advisor on the Middle East, discusses issues facing Christians in the region and ways in which people in this country can offer support. Jointly hosted Archbishop Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Archbishop Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster the conference will take place at Lambeth Palace on 18-19 July.

Dr Hagopian says: “They are facing difficulties and they find themselves sometimes completely cut off from the rest of this Christian fellowship, so the question is, as they learn to work more cohesively together as institutions...and as they face the vagaries of a rather relentless occupation and the creeping in of a certain kind of religious radicalism and discrimination, the question then is - what can we do? What can we in Europe and the West do to help them there?”

“One of the highlights of this conference is the ecumenisation and the launching of the ‘Friends of the Holy Land’, which is a way of encouraging parishes in this country, as well as across the western world, to try and contribute to the projects, either ongoing projects or new projects, in the Holy Land in order to try and help those Christians.”

“Whether it is in their hospitals and hospices, whether it is in their schools, whether it is in their churches, whether it is in their old people’s homes....they [Christians] provide so many social services to such a wide strata of society, be they Christian or Muslim, that it is I think our responsibility to try and help them as they try to live their daily lives with dignity, a sense of citizenship and a sense of relevance to the wider Church.”

Dr Hagopian is an international lawyer and consultant to the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales on the Middle East. He's also a former Assistant General Secretary of the Middle East Council of Churches and Executive Secretary of the Jerusalem Inter-Church Committee.

To listen to the Podcast go to: www.catholicchurch.org.uk/holy-land-pod

Dr Harry Hagopian's website: www.epektasis.net/

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