Holy Land Christians Endure Hardships This Christmas

At a time when the Hamas-Israel war is claiming lives and causing widespread displacement, leaders of the various Holy Land churches have asked their communities to forgo public Christmas festivities. The solidarity initiative began on Nov. 5 in Jordan, where leaders of the country’s Council of Churches asked local Christians to celebrate Christmas at home and in church through prayer. Soon afterward, the patriarchs and heads of the churches in Jerusalem issued a similar statement calling for Palestinian and other Holy Land Christians to focus on the spiritual aspects of Christmas and to pray for the war’s victims and those in dire need.