Jerusalem church leaders call for peace

The Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem have, not for the primary time, called for peace within the region.

In their Easter message the church leaders acknowledged the “present darkness that engulfs our region”, referring to the continuing conflict between Israel and its Islamic neighbours.

Despite this, they said that they’d a “message of hope” in regards to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, an event that continues to be a light-weight within the darkness with the facility to beat sin and death.

The message noted that Jesus carried all of our sins and our failures, including the entire “war and darkness” of human history. Yet despite the burden of such sin and horror, Christ was ultimately not broken by it, but rose again in “light that dispels darkness”.

The patriarchs noted that Jesus’ ministry was one in every of aiding and pastoring those that were poor, downtrodden and in distress: “With deep gratitude for God’s redeeming grace in Christ, we embrace this mission, especially as we seek to reply pastorally to all who’ve suffered so grievously in our region over the past eighteen months.”

The message calls upon Christians to work towards an end to the conflict within the Holy Land and indeed to all conflicts all over the world and to bring relief to the afflicted and release to the captives.

In particular the Easter message prolonged greetings to Christians in Gaza who’ve been sheltering in St Porphyrios Orthodox Church and Holy Family Catholic Church because the war between Israel and Hamas rages around them.

A recent report suggested that greater than half of Gaza’s Christian population are currently taking refuge within the Holy Family Church.

Some Christians have been killed because of this of Israeli actions in Gaza, including 18 individuals who were killed in an airstrike that hit Saint Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church in 2023. In one other incident the identical yr, two women were shot by snipers on the Holy Family Church.