wfn.org | Christians in the Holy Land

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James Solheim
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2000-113

Christians in the Holy Land; a small, faithful remnant

by Nan Cobbey

     (Episcopal Life) "A church that is isolated is a 
church that is dying."

     The Rev. Jane Butterfield, mission personnel officer 
for the Episcopal Church, was looking down over the city of 
Nazareth spread across the hills below her.

     Her view was south over the troubled land that 
Palestinian Christians are leaving in greater numbers every 
year, where one people prospers and another declines.

     She was talking of the Diocese of Jerusalem, where 
Anglican institutions founded by missionaries generations 
ago are now falling into disrepair and disuse and where 
young people are emigrating in search of better 
opportunities. Yet her focus actually was broader: If the 
Anglican Church is to continue to be a presence in the land 
of Jesus' birth, the diocese will need the support, 
financial and spiritual, of the whole communion.

Three agendas

     Butterfield came to the Holy Land with two other women 
who can help build that support: Phoebe Griswold, wife of 
Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, and Sandra Swan, 
director of the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief.

     Together, the women traveled across the much-contested 
land, where Arab Christians now make up only 2 percent of 
the population, down from 13 percent a century ago. 
Everywhere they went they listened to heart-breaking 
stories of loss, humiliation and frustration from their 
sister and brother Anglicans, but they also saw church-
supported projects so innovative and strong that the 
visitors marveled at the commitment and drive that kept 
them going. They met dedicated, enthusiastic young priests 
full of hope and confidence. At each stop they heard how 
outside support is needed because the communities of 
Anglicans once present in the Holy Land have dwindled so 
drastically.

     Griswold, who had visited the diocese two years 
earlier, wanted most to reconnect with the Anglican women 
of Palestine she'd met and hear an update of their lives 
and struggles.

     Swan wanted to hear dollars-and-sense answers to her 
questions about the building and development projects 
proposed for "Jerusalem 2000," a possible joint capital 
campaign with the Church of England.

     Butterfield was eager to ease the way for several new 
missionaries she'd signed on to work in development and 
communications with the diocese and to identify additional 
opportunities for "mission companions."

Voices of women

     For six sunny April days, the women traveled from Gaza 
on the Mediterranean to the West Bank, over the Jordan 
River to Amman, Jordan, then north through the Yizre'el 
Valley with its brilliantly colored blanket of wildflowers-
-"these are the lilies of the field Jesus spoke of ," the 
bishop told them more than once--to Nazareth and Nablus and 
back to the coast, to Haifa and Acco. Their schedule kept 
them moving from early morning until 9 or 10 each evening, 
as they, the two new  mission companions and, frequently, 
Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal of Jerusalem visited a half-dozen 
schools and an equal number of churches, three hospitals, 
several church-sponsored development projects, institutions 
supported by the diocese and sites of biblical interest. At 
each stop the group listened for themes. It was the women's 
voices that moved them most.

     "You ask 'Has it been better?' It hasn't been better," 
said Betty Majaj, head of the Jerusalem Princess Basma 
Centre for Disabled Children, a school supported by the 
diocese.

     Majaj, whose center trains mothers with their disabled 
children, making them community advocates for better care, 
acceptance and integration, related the story of one of 
those mothers from the West Bank. The woman had been trying 
desperately to get permission to enter Jerusalem and get to 
the center. She wanted to order a brace made at its 
prosthetics workshop.

     "When finally she was able to come, she cried, 'Three 
years, three years I have been trying,'" said Majaj.

     Checkpoints, well-guarded, barbed-wired border 
crossings and the ever-visible Israeli military enforce 
strict travel restrictions against Palestinians, the women 
were told. Obtaining passes is time-consuming and often 
impossible. One woman after another told the same story. 
Majaj's own daughter, married to a German and now living in 
Germany, has repeatedly been refused entry "and without any 
reason given."

Factors for the future

     In Jordan, home to 2 million Palestinian refugees, 
according to Riah, the group was delighted to hear a 
success story. Graduates of the church-supported Ahliyyah 
School for Girls in Amman are among the most successful and 
respected citizens of the country. "One hundred percent of 
our students go to universities inside and outside Jordan," 
Director Haifa Majjar said proudly. They serve in the 
country's ministries of planning and economy, as directors 
of institutions, in Parliament. "We think our students are 
going to be a major factor in the future of the country," 
said Majjar.

     The school, founded by missionaries in 1926 and one of 
the first schools for girls in Jordan, was turned over to 
the Episcopal Church in 1957. Today it trains 1,100 
students and has a waiting list of 380.

     In Gaza, the news was less good.

     Samira Farah, administrative director of the Ahli Arab 
Hospital in Gaza City, another diocesan-supported 
operation, told the American guests that the hospital, the 
only private Christian hospital in Gaza, had to turn 
patients away every day because it couldn't afford 
sufficient staff. The Ahli (it means "Ours") hospital, with 
its 80 subsidized beds, provides about 10 percent of all 
hospital beds available in the Gaza Strip. Its 866 beds 
must serve a population of more than 1 million.

Deep poverty

     Farah showed the women a bit of the scenery of Gaza, 
driving with them through the Jabalia Refugee Camp and past 
one of the Israeli "settlements." Her frustration at the 
life people must live poured forth as she told how a whole 
generation "missed receiving their education. Many, many 
lost their chance...and without any excuse. People are 
really fed up, especially the new generation who want to 
live like human beings."

     Speaking in English, her second language, Farah 
described the conditions the refugees faced: "No sewage 
line, 20 living in two rooms," feeling "constantly 
insecure" for their children. "The soldier may come anytime 
and just take your child and just put him in the prison 
without any reason."

     According to World Vision Jerusalem, 78 percent of the 
residents of Gaza are refugees, 55 percent of them live in 
camps like Jabalia. The infant mortality rate among 
refugees is 44 per 1,000. Population density, 80 people per 
square mile in Israel, is 9,126 in Gaza, according to World 
Vision.

     "About two out of three households in Gaza [are] 
suffering from deep poverty...unable to meet the minimum 
required for food, clothing and housing," according to a 
1998 Palestine Poverty Report. Unable to travel into Israel 
for work, Palestinians are left with few options.

     Even in Jerusalem, and among Palestinians who are 
Israeli citizens, the women spoke of worries for their 
children, of humiliations they had to endure.

     "We are a minority within a minority and under 
occupation," said Elian Abdalnour, wife of a priest, at the 
gathering called by Griswold to hear from the women.

     "It is an enormous load. We feel it is a huge 
responsibility for us as Christians to take care of this 
younger generation, for us to upbring the kids under the 
Christian education the way we want it."

     Abdalnour and several other mothers present expressed 
dismay at the number of young people leaving Palestine, yet 
many admitted that they understood only too well.

     "Our children are affected by the upbringing of the 
other faiths. It's different and more aggressive and our 
children are becoming more aggressive," said Abdalnour.

     "We don't have our rights. We are still not free. The 
identity of the Palestinian is still lost," Samira Nasser 
told the gathering. "The Israeli government is really 
humiliating us for no reason. They don't want to humble 
themselves amongst the facts that the Palestinians have the 
right to live in this land."

So much truth

     The emotion and anxiety of the women was particularly 
disturbing for Griswold.

     "The first time [I came], the women were so open, so 
revelatory," she said. "I almost felt guilty for unleashing 
so much truth...about the difficulty of their lives as 
Palestinians...as Palestinian Christian women who are 
Anglican. They have just been marginalized to the very edge 
of society.

     "The tension in their lives, I feel, has increased 
since last time. That was distressing to me. How is it that 
they are going to find the resources to stay here?

     "I'd hate to see, in 20 years' time, 50 years' time," 
said Griswold, "that what we're doing is raising funds to 
pay tour guides to show us our own Christian sites."

     Swan and Butterfield shared her concern and both have 
means to fend off such a tragedy.

     "All the people we have talked to here seem to feel 
that the opportunities for expansion of Anglicanism are 
remote to nonexistent," said Swan, who oversees the 
distribution of millions of dollars in grants every year. 
"From my point of view, it seems that the preservation of 
the institutions of humanitarian services--schools and 
hospitals--are the one way we can continue to demonstrate 
our heritage, our traditions, our belief systems. If the institutions
live on, then the ethos will live on."
     Butterfield, who has responsibility for more than 70 paid 
and volunteer missionaries around the world, has a slightly 
different perspective.
     "Relationships between people generate an enormous 
amount of deep respect and love. That is what the sharing 
of time and life through mission companions and diocesan 
companion relationships brings about." Those relationships 
then provide "opportunities for exchange as well as occasionally 
gifts of money and other resources."
Moments of hope
     As the women gathered with Griswold were about to disperse, 
there came two moments of hope. The words of frustration and 
anguish stilled as Samira Nasser, head of the church's Evangelical 
Home and School in Ramallah, encouraged the other women to 
"enlarge their community," to invite other denominations and Muslims 
into their circle for lectures, awareness programs, discussions and 
sharing. "Why are these differences between us?" she asked. "Our 
role is to go out, spread our feeling, our conviction as Anglicans as 
a help to the community."
     A moment later, Butterfield passed Nasser the Bible opened to 
Psalm 37 and asked her to close their session with the first four verses:
     "Fret not yourself because of the wicked,
     be not envious of wrongdoers!
     For they will soon fade like the grass,
     And wither like the green herb.
     Trust in the Lord and do good;
     So you will dwell in the land, and enjoy security.
     Take delight in the Lord,
     And he will give you the desires of your heart."
     To learn more about giving through the Presiding Bishop's Fund, 
contact the fund at 800-334-7626, ext. 6027. To learn more about 
opportunities to serve in the Diocese of Jerusalem, contact Butterfield 
at extension 5461.

--Nan Cobbey is features editor of Episcopal Life, the national 
newspaper of the Episcopal Church.