Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem Send Greetings to Christians Around the World

Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem. Photo: Albin Hillert/WCC

~ from a post dated April 5, 2023 on the World Council of Churches website

“As we have all seen in recent months, escalating violence has engulfed the Holy Land,” reads the message. “For over the past year, some of our churches, funeral processions, and places of public gathering have become targets of attack; some of our holy sites and cemeteries have been desecrated; and some of our ancient liturgies, such as the Palm Sunday Procession and the Holy Fire Ceremony, have been closed off to thousands of worshipers.”

The message asks the overseeing officials to work cooperatively and collaboratively. “We place our ultimate hope only in God,” reads the message. “For through Christ’s resurrection, we have the blessed assurance of the Almighty’s gracious providence through the Holy Spirit, a source of divine power that is able to sustain us today, just as it sustained Jerusalem’s first Christians those many centuries ago.”

The statement was published on the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem website on March 31, 2023.  A pdf of this statement can be downloaded here.