ASIA/HOLY LAND - Nazareth: Melkite summer camp promotes peace amid conflict

Monday, 15 July 2024 middle east oriental churches jerusalem youth wars area crisis

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by Chiara Dommarco

Nazareth (Agenzia Fides) - "Peace is our hope". This is the clear and eloquent title that kicked off the first weekend, just ended, of the summer camp organized by the priests of the parish of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church of Nazareth, with the support of some Italian friends.
For a month, from mid-July to mid-August, more than 50 children and young people between 6 and 25 years old, together with several animators, will enjoy moments of play, meeting and prayer every Saturday and Sunday, trying to go through and overcome together a summer in which the conflict directly affects their lives.
Archimandrite Simaan Jaraisi, vice-parish priest of the Melkite community of Nazareth, described to Fides the precariousness that affects the daily life of the Nazarenes in recent months: "In the north, sirens sound continuously and in the center, planes fly to the north and south. Not knowing what will happen, and not just tomorrow, but in an hour generates feelings of great despair and sadness: the future is unknown and dark for us. "We need everything, both material and spiritual goods." Among the many activities planned during the weekends of the summer camp are football, basketball and other outdoor games, as well as moments of meeting and prayer in the facilities of the parish complex.
If the evolution of events allows it, Father Simaan and his confreres would like to include in the summer camp program a prayer vigil in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher and possibly also a visit to other Holy Places in Jerusalem: traveling the 145 km that separate Nazareth from the Holy City may not be possible, but it would also be the only opportunity for most young people to be able to leave their city after so many months.
The war that broke out last October has accentuated the phenomenon of emigration of Arab Christians from the Middle East to Israeli territories. According to data published in December 2023 by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, which reflects the situation before the conflict, Christians represent approximately 1.9% of the population in the State of Israel.
In Nazareth, the largest Arab city in the north of the country, there are approximately 20,800 Arab Christians, out of a total of almost 78,000 inhabitants. However, it is currently not possible to know how and to what extent these numbers have changed since last October.
“We do not know exactly how many Christians there are now in the city,” says the Melkite Archimandrite, “since for years the number of Christians in Nazareth has been decreasing for several reasons: we have a difficult history behind us, starting a family costs a lot of money and it has never been easy to find work. Most of the city's Christians move to Australia, the United States and Canada. With this latest war, the phenomenon has increased, also because finding work has become even more difficult and the costs of basic needs have increased exponentially.”
Melkite Greek Catholics have always represented the majority component of the city's Catholic Christians and, according to the latest estimates before the war, the parish where Father Simaan serves had about 10,000 baptized.
The Melkite Greek Catholic Church follows the Byzantine rite, but mainly uses the Arabic language in its liturgies. The Melkite Greek Catholic archdiocese of Akka (Acre), which also has jurisdiction over Nazareth, has been governed since 2019 by Archbishop Youssef Matta and has about 78,000 faithful and 35 parishes. “The most difficult thing for me to understand and accept – concludes the archimandrite – is that after centuries of wars, including the horrors of the 20th century, the world is incapable of putting an end to yet another war. This is incomprehensible to me. "I do not understand the reason for so much suffering and death, I only ask the Lord may peace come to the hearts of the rulers and to all of us." (Agenzia Fides, 15/7/2024)