Christian leaders in the region fear for the future of their faith in the land where it began. Kim Lawton has our story, the first in her series of special millennial reports from the Holy Land.
KIM LAWTON: In the Israeli town of Sephar-Om, not far from the Sea of Galilee, Christians gather for Sunday worship, just as they have here for nearly 2,000 years. Like other Arab Christians across the Holy Land, these members of the ancient Melkite Church trace their religious roots to the time of Jesus. But they fear their community is now becoming extinct.Reverend ELIAS CHACOUR (Melkite Church, Galilee): Can you imagine the land of Jesus, the land of Christianity, without any Christians?
LAWTON: With year 2000 celebrations, Palestinian church leaders worry western Christian pilgrims will flock to the Holy Land, visit the holy sites, and then leave without ever thinking about the struggling indigenous Christian community. Many say they've often met tourists who are amazed to discover there are Arab Christians.
Bishop MUNIB YOUNAN (Evangelical Lutheran Church, Jerusalem): "Are you from the United States?"I said, "No, I am sorry; I am from Jerusalem."
"Oh, is there a Christian church?"
"Yes, I'm a Palestinian Christian."
"Oh, how long were you converted from Islam or from Judaism?"
"No, I have been 2,000 years a Christian, even before Christianity went to the United States."
Rev. CHACOUR: I might remind you with some humility that nothing whatsoever started in Rome or in Geneva or in Constantinople. All these people, the pope inclusive, are supposed to be the guardians, the custodians of what started in this land.
LAWTON: But local church leaders say what started in their land has now diminished significantly. A modern-day Christian exodus began in 1948, when the state of Israel was established. Christians were among the hundreds of thousands of Arabs displaced during the '48 war and the conflicts that followed, and they continued to leave in high numbers.Reverend MITRI RAHEB (Christmas Lutheran Church, Bethlehem): You know, for many Americans, Palestine is the promised land. Now for our people, the United States or Canada or Australia, this is the promised land. So they are leaving this land to their promised land.
LAWTON: The Christian decline can be attributed to at least two factors: higher emigration rates and much lower birth rates than Palestinian Muslims. The impact of both has been dramatic. In 1945, about 30,000 Christians lived in Jerusalem. Today, fewer than 10,000 Christians live there, less than 2 percent of the city's population. Jipna, where tradition says Mary and Joseph stopped to rest on their way to Bethlehem, was once an all-Christian village. Now it's a virtual ghost town.Christianity has even diminished in Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. For most of the centuries after the Nativity, Bethlehem was overwhelmingly Christian. Today, Christians make up only about a third of the local population.
Rev. RAHEB: And we don't want the Holy Land to become just a Christian theme park or a Christian world Disneyland.
LAWTON: The reasons behind the exodus are deeply intertwined with the complex politics of the region. Palestinian Christians say they suffer oppression not because they're Christians, but because they're Palestinians. Most emigration is from east Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, areas taken over by Israel after the Six-Day War in 1967. Muslims and Christians alike claim Israeli occupation policies have created social, political, and economic hardships that are too difficult to overcome.
Mr. DAVID RABIE: Very hard, you know, very hard to do anything. You can't find a job. You can't -- very hard living.
Rev. CHACOUR: We have no political power. We have very little influence as far as lobbying for our rights. The Christians in the Holy Land, they would like to see, to feel a little bit more at home.
Reverend EMIL SALAYTA (Latin Patriarchate, Bir Zeit): Education is one of the main means for us to go ahead with our mission, because this is where we prepare the future of the church. But what we can do is prepare a different quality of Christians, you know, aware of their identity as Christians, well educated and with a mission within their own society.
Rev. RAHEB: We think that, you know, that message of glory to God in the highest and peace on Earth, goodwill to men, which was heard 2,000 years ago, should continue to be heard in Palestine also in the next century.
