Holy Land Christians Call for 'Hope, Encouragement, Perseverance' for Easter 2010

The heads of Orthodox, Coptic and Protestant churches in the Holy Land issued a call on believers to have "hope, encouragement and perseverance" this Easter, and expressed solidarity for the "struggles so many Christians face, both here in this land and elsewhere in the world."

"We know the power of despair….[w]e with you know the power of sin and death," the bishops wrote. "We also know the power of the Resurrection. We know the power of God to bring hope out of despair."

"Christians, in all generations, face many challenges. Our current generation is no different than those who have gone before us. We, with you, have great responsibilities and many obstacles," they continued. "The Christian Church faces struggles here in this land and yet we continue to be full of hope that we are at one and the same time the Church of Calvary and the Church of the Resurrection."

"Our faith is not in the power of death, but in the power of the sacrificial life of Christ," they said.

The leaders ended with a request for prayers for believers in the region as they "struggle for justice, peace and reconciliation, so that when Jesus returns he will not again weep for Jerusalem but share in our joy of unity, respect and love for all people in the Holy Land."

"May the one and living God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit bless, preserve and keep you, now and always. Amen," they concluded.

2010 has marked a bloody and tragic year for Middle East Christians, many of whom faced some of the worst violence in their regions in the decades.

On March 27, a 3-year-old child was killed in a bomb attack on a Christian home in Mosul, northern Iraq - the same location where, ten days earlier, a Christian shopkeeper was gunned down as the ninth victim in a string of bloody violence against the religious minority in the country.

The attacks, which saw eight Christians gunned down in the span of two weeks, are reported to be politically motivated and related to the recent elections that took place in Iraq in March.

Believers in Egypt, meanwhile, experienced tragedy in early January when six Coptic Christians were gunned down by radical Muslims during a Christmas Eve celebration in Nag Hammadi, upper Egypt.

Three Muslim men have been detained for the incident, although their trial was recently delayed a second time by Egyptian courts until April 18.

In his Easter message this year, Bishop Munib Younan of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL) compared Middle Eastern churches to Mary Magdalene, who was overcome with grief as she lamented at Christ's empty tomb.

"Jerusalem, as the site of the resurrection, should be the city of hope. But many people here, Israeli and Palestinian alike, find it easy to relate to Mary's sadness," Younan said. "We feel there is no hope. We cry. We lack energy. We don't think clearly. We are afraid. We withdraw into our territories, our political positions, our arguments and opinions, and lock the door."

"Like Mary, we stay in this land dying for peace and justice," he added. "As Jesus called Mary as his apostle of the resurrection, so we Palestinian Christians are called as apostles of hope despite our struggle, despite our hopelessness."

Younan and other Middle Eastern bishops have expressed their anguish at trying to preserve the Middle Eastern church, which continues to shrink due to ongoing violence and persecution.

An estimated 35 percent of Christians in the Holy Land have left the area since the 1960's. Some observers estimate that the population will be extinct in 50 years.

Author Charles Sennott in his 2002 book The Body and the Blood: The Holy Land's Christians at the Turn of the Century writes poignantly, saying, "In one Jerusalem parish there were not enough young Christian men left to carry a casket at a funeral...In the sanctuary of an Upper Egypt monastery, Christians cowered in fear of violence from Islamic militants and systematic human rights violations by Egypt's police state. In Lebanon the empty halls of once-grand Maronite Christian monasteries echoed a long-distant past crumbling and disappearing in the aftermath of a devastating civil war."

"In all these places I found the Christian community withering, as daily life grew steadily more difficult," he said.

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