Posted on 12/24/2002 8:50:34 AM PST by Destro
Posted on Tue, Dec. 24, 2002
Losing ground in the Holy Land
BY JIM JONES
Knight Ridder Newspapers
(KRT) - As Christians turn their eyes this week to the Holy Land, where Israeli soldiers patrol the streets of Bethlehem, reminders of the bitter battles fought for that plot of earth will temper celebrations of Christ's birth.
These battles spawn allegiances that reach around the world to Texas, where a group of Christians is among those continuing to struggle for a piece of Israel. The Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, a 900-year-old Catholic order, make it their mission to ensure that Christians occupy the land where they have fought and lived in uneasy peace with Jews and Muslims for centuries. They fight not with swords as their forebears did, but with money and clout.
In the past, Christmas has been a time for members of the order to make pilgrimages to the place of Christ's birth.
"We usually have two pilgrimages to the Holy Land a year, but we haven't had one in our region since March 2001," says Michael Earthman of Houston, Texas, chief executive of the order's Southwest region. Many planned pilgrimages have been canceled because of the continuing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"It's very frustrating and sad that people who want to be in Bethlehem on Christmas can't be there," Earthman says.
The group's four-state Southwest region, led by Rene Gracida, a retired Corpus Christi, Texas, Catholic bishop and grand prior of the order, claims close to 2,000 members, who gave half a million dollars to the cause this year.
"Christians are vanishing from the Holy Land," says Gracida. "It's a disaster. It is conceivable, if the present situation continues, there will be no Christians living in the Holy Land, and that's intolerable."
Those who watch the shifting population of Israel offer differing opinions on the degree of the Christian exodus. But several Muslim, Christian and Jewish leaders agree that the overall number of Christians living in Israel has dropped significantly in recent years.
And many outside the Order of the Holy Sepulchre would agree that the disappearance of Christians from Israel would be a travesty.
Jews, Muslims and Christians have traded control of the Holy Land time and again for centuries.
Christians view it as the birthplace of Jesus and the site of his ministry, death and resurrection. For Jews, Israel is the land God promised the patriarch Abraham. And Muslims, who ruled the area for centuries, believe Jerusalem is the place from which the prophet Muhammad ascended into heaven.
The Order of the Holy Sepulchre dates to the Middle Ages, but its purpose is as current as today's headlines. The group, with 18,000 members internationally, donates about $14 million a year to Christian orphanages, hospitals, seminaries, churches and schools in the Middle East, Earthman says.
A portion of that money comes from the order's Southwest region, one of the largest of its 54 regions. Its 1,964 members in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and New Mexico contributed $500,000 to their cause this year.
The order takes its name from its mission to protect the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, which from the time of Roman emperor Constantine has been a place of pilgrimage for Christians. Followers believe that inside its ancient walls are the site of the crucifixion and the tomb of Jesus Christ.
Membership in the order is by invitation, and the invitation is an honor.
"The bishop has to recommend you," says member Anna Marie Moncrief.
In order to belong, members must uphold high moral and spiritual standards and contribute sacrificially to help Christians in the Holy Land.
And although the order's mission is modern, its trappings are medieval.
During a meeting of the order this fall in Grapevine, Gracida used a sword to dub new knights and ladies of the order during a Mass at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church.
Men knelt in long white capes marked with the blood-red Jerusalem cross, and women wore black lace.
Gracida says a lack of educational opportunities is one of the factors fueling the Christian exodus.
To combat this, the order gives money to Bethlehem University, founded about 30 years ago. At one time it was the only university for Palestinian Christians and Palestinian Muslims in Israel, he said. Now a limited number of non-Jews can attend Hebrew University and other schools of higher education in Israel, he says.
William A. Moncrief III of Fort Worth, Texas, who with his wife, Anna Marie Moncrief, belongs to the order, said the bombings and other violence in the region have largely stifled another major goal of the group: promoting pilgrimages to Israel.
Experts agree that Christians are leaving Israel.
"There's no question that the number of Christians has been declining, and there are several reasons for it," said Mark H. Ellis, professor of religion and director of the Center for American and Jewish Studies at Baylor University.
Ellis, who is Jewish, said Palestinian Christians have left because of limited educational and economic opportunity and the ongoing strife between Israelis and Palestinians.
"It's a shame, because the Palestinian Christians have a right to live in the land where they were born," he said. "Also, it is tragedy because the Christians there might have been a bridge of peace between the Palestinian Muslims and Israelis."
Syed Ahsani of Arlington, director of the Texas branch of the American Muslim Alliance, agreed that the decline of Christians in Israel is regrettable.
"The Palestinians, Christians and Muslims feel insecure," he said. "That's why they leave."
Callistus Welch of Washington, D.C., treasurer of the Holy Land Foundation, which also aids Christians in the Middle East, says Palestinian Christians depart Israel for better living conditions.
"As soon as they get the money they leave, because the political and economic situation is so bad," he said.
Bethlehem was 80 percent Christian 35 years ago, Welch says. Today it is 80 percent Muslim and 20 percent Christian with few Jews, he says. About 120,000 Christians live in Israel and the surrounding area today, half the number that lived there 10 years ago, he says.
But Christians won't disappear from the Holy Land completely, said John Chryssaugus, professor at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Boston. He said Greek Orthodox Christians still have a vibrant community there, and immigrants have initiated some growth in recent years.
These are the sorts of numbers that the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre like to hear.
"So many Christians there date their families back to the time of Christ," says order member Maye Ellen Jones. "When you think about it, all the Christians in the world at one point were gathered in one room in Jerusalem."
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(Jim Jones writes for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Write to him c/o the Star-Telegram, P.O. Box 1870, Fort Worth, TX 76101.E-mail: jjones.12@charter.net)
Orthodoxy will never abandon the places of Romiosini no matter the adversity.
Their work is vital for peace in the middle east, to preserve the understanding the Islam doesn't have to own the Arab people, to remind the world that Christianity is not merely a phenomenon of European culture, and to save the Holy Land from degenerating into a religious theme park.
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