The Patriarch said: “We remain fully committed to supporting our pastoral and spiritual mission as entrusted to us by God, and even as we face these unprecedented and dangerous developments.” He added: “We reassure our Christian community in our holy land, in the Middle East and throughout the world, that we in the Patriarchate of Jerusalem and holy sites will do everything we can to support and preserve the property of the Patriarchate and other churches, and we will be steadfast in protecting the Christian presence in the region…the Jaffa Gate ruling and the proposed draft law have serious impacts.” “We are here today to spread this message from Jordan, under the leadership of His Majesty King Abdullah II, the custodian of Islamic and Christian holy sites in the Holy Land, based on the Statico and international laws and covenants,” he added.
Archimandrite Christoforos Atallah, the spiritual leader of Dibbin Monastery, briefed the conference on the difficult conditions the Orthodox Church is experiencing under the Israeli occupation.
Atallah said the Patriarchate is in the process of taking legal and reform actions to address many issues, the most important of which is the Jaffa Gate ruling.
//Petra/
