Jerusalem church leaders brief Diplomatic Corps on threats to Christian presence

Patriarch Theophilos III

Rev Donald Binder writes: This morning, it was again my pleasure to moderate a briefing on the rising threats to the Christian presence in the Holy Land between the Council of the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem and more than three dozen members of Jerusalem's diplomatic corps.

His Beatitude, Patriarch Theophilos III opened the session by highlighting our concerns about increased government restrictions on attendance at Christian worship celebrations, especially the service of the Holy Fire on Easter Eve.

He and other Heads of Churches, including Archbishop Hosam, also raised the matter of repeated IDF and settler attacks on our churches, hospitals, and Christians themselves.

These, coupled with threatened taxation and seizure of church properties underscored for all present the serious erosion of religious freedom in the Holy Land over the past decade.

After the Heads of the Churches spoke, representatives from Augusta Victoria Hospital also pleaded with the Ambassadors and Heads of Mission to pressure the Israeli government to let the hundreds of Gazan children in need of cancer treatment there to be permitted to receive lifesaving medical procedures at their facility on the Mount of Olives, as had been allowed prior to the war.

Following the presentations, several of the diplomats rose to pledge their continued support of the Churches and religious freedom in general.

I concluded by thanking those present for their advocacy and encouraged them to invite their governments to send fact-finding delegations here so that they might gain a greater awareness of the many problems that the international community needs to address in their diplomatic relations with the present government.

Rev Donald Binder is Chaplain to the Anglican Archbishop in Jerusalem and Canon Pastor of the English-Speaking Congregation of St George's Cathedral, Jerusalem