Still Running Off at the Keyboard

We, the hierarchs of the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops
in the Americas (SCOBA), reflecting on the continuing Middle East crisis,
wish to express our concern and pain with regard to the violence and
threats of violence in the Middle East.

We are aware that for various people, the land Christians call the Holy
Land is simply a geography of holy places and holy sites to be visited in
memory of events described in the Holy Scriptures. Often, this reverence
for the holy places is not accompanied by knowledge of the continuous
Christian life in the Holy Land since the time of Christ. Paradoxically,
some Christian voices in the United States, expressing a factually
erroneous point of view, even deny the presence of living and historic
Christian communities in Israel and in the Palestinian Authority.

As a consequence of the violent confrontations and the poverty and economic
instability of the Palestinian population, emigration from the region
continues and accelerates. Thus, the entire Christian population, and
especially the Orthodox Christian population, is diminished month by month.
In demographic terms, within the foreseeable future the Holy Land will be a
land of holy sites and holy stones, with the Christian population reduced
to the status of mere custodians of these holy places, no longer able to
maintain a viable community life.

We appeal to all nations and persons engaged in this crisis to take into
account the concerns we have expressed as they seek to travel on the road
to peace and democracy in the Middle East.

In reflecting on the violence and threats of violence in the Middle East,
and about the rapidly decreasing Christian population, we read with
appreciation the report of the National Council of the Churches of Christ
in the USA (NCCC) delegation which visited the Middle East early this year.
Under the title "Barriers Do Not Bring Freedom," the delegation expressed
also the concerns we raise in this statement of the Standing Conference of
Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas. We appreciate this _expression
of Christian solidarity. We appeal to all Christians in the US to be
mindful of all the living Christian communities in Israel, the Palestinian
Authority, and the whole Middle East, and to show this mindfulness in
prayer and in actions of solidarity.