RTE No 20 Interior - Road to Emmaus Journal

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Road to Emmaus Vol. XI, No. 4 (#43)Taybeh’s Pleaes that are being destroyed, this is a deliberate attempt to uproot Christiansand our holy places from the land that was made sacred by Christ Himself.RTE: When Israel targeted southern Lebanon in 2006, some of the “collateraldamage” included Orthodox Christian churches that had survived fromthe 6th and 7th centuries, through invasions and wars. These churches weremarked on maps as internationally recognized historic and religious sites,and were known as such to the Israelis. A Lebanese Orthodox cleric whowent down to inspect the damage as soon as the cease-fire was announced,said that not only were some of our earliest Christian churches and frescoesdestroyed by bombs, but that many of the churches still standing were desecratedby Israeli troops, with horrible graffiti and destruction of the ancientfrescoed icons. In some churches, Israeli soldiers had defecated on the altars.We don’t hear these things in the news.Sts. Constantine and Helen, St. George,and the Holy Land’s ChurchesRTE: Also, Orthodox monks and nuns at the holy sites in Israel have told methat it is often very difficult to continue as caretakers of these holy places.Utilities can be arbitrarily cut off, permits are refused, monastics and clergyare routinely spat on in public by Orthodox Jews, and so on. Saint Helen,whom you mentioned earlier, seems to be someone we should remember topray to more often. After all, she is the mother of these holy places.DR. KHOURY: Yes, and I always think how, with no technology and lesswealth than today, she built these incredible churches where we can glorifythe birth, the crucifixion, resurrection, and the ascension of Our Lord. Shedid so much to document our Christian roots. Christianity flourished in theHoly Land with St. Constantine the Great and St. Helen, and in fact, did youknow that St. Constantine was the first person to call Palestine ‘the HolyLand’? The 5th and 6th centuries saw a huge pilgrim presence in hundredsof monasteries, whereas now we have monasteries with only one monk, suchas on the Mount of Temptation, to keep the place safe. In the 6th centurythere were over 200 monks at St. Sava; now there are less than twenty. Forthe early Christians it was almost like a fifth gospel—to make this pilgrimageand to walk in the footsteps of Christ.Saint Constantine was also the first Christian ruler to name churches afterSt. George the Great Martyr, which is why the Church in our area is calledSt. George. The original Church of St. George with his relics, is Lydda (Lyd),near the Ben Gurion-Tel Aviv airport. After his martyrdom, his body wasbrought to Lydda because his mother had property where Lyd is today. SaintGeorge is the most beloved saint of the Middle East, and many churches arenamed after him. While we honor him as a saint, Muslims also honor himas a courageous military hero. Because St. George was a high-ranking officerin the Roman army, and they have had some historical experience of his appearingand protecting Christians, Muslims have traditionally been afraid todestroy churches dedicated to him. So, for centuries, many churches in theMiddle East have been named after St. George as a way to protect them. Infact, in our village of Taybeh we have three churches named after St. George:the remains of the fourth-century church built by St. Helen; the church thatwe currently pray in that was also built in the early centuries, destroyed twiceby natural means and rebuilt; and the Greek Catholic Church (Melkite).RTE: I’ve heard stories from Christians from Constantinople, from the 1950’suntil now, of Muslims who have had encounters or dreams of St. George tellingthem to do things to help the Christians. His influence seems to be verymuch alive in the Muslim world.DR. KHOURY: Yes, he’s often called Al-Khader, the Green One. This is aMuslim title for St. George, whom they identify with a mysterious Muslimprophet. The Christian population of the Holy Land did decrease after theMuslim invasions because if villagers didn’t convert to Islam they were oftenkilled. The bloodiest period in the Holy Land, though, was the Crusades,when more Muslims and Jews were slaughtered than were Christians at anyperiod in the history of the Holy Land. The remaining Christian majoritybegan to drop once the Ottoman Empire came to power, which controlledthe Holy Land for over 400 years.RTE: Do you have any idea how Christians lived under the Ottomans?DR. KHOURY: I know that Abdallah, one of my husband’s great-grandfathers,represented the Taybeh community in the Ottoman governing councils as thevillage chief. I’m not exactly sure how Christians were treated while underthe Ottomans, but I know that once the British Mandate was established in1918 there was tolerance for faith. Nevertheless, Palestinian Christians wereusually treated as second-class citizens in each succeeding occupation. Forexample, under the Ottomans if you were accused of a crime the only way to3637
Taybeh’s Pleaescape punishment would be to convert to Islam. In general during the Ottomanperiod if you converted to Islam, you would receive many social benefits,while Christians suffered psychologically, socially, and economically.What Can We Do?RTE: What can we do as English-speaking Orthodox to help the Christians ofPalestine? Do you have projects we can support?DR. KHOURY: I ask people first of all to pray, and then to write to their senatorsand congressmen about the Palestinian situation. Letters do help. Wealso have people in Palestine who are trying to create jobs and assist witheducation to give these people hope to stay here. In the West, however, weoften seem to be “out of sight, out of mind.” In 1998, Fr. Daoud Khoury, thepriest of our village and my husband’s first cousin, sent out letters aboutour situation and our desire to raise funds to build homes for Christians inTaybeh to seventy Orthodoxchurches and people he personallyknew in the U.S., butno one responded.RTE: No one?DR. KHOURY: No one. Then,in 2000, when I lost my job oftraining English teachers foreleven schools because the Israeliarmy had blockaded theroads and I could no longerFr. Daoud Khoury and Taybeh Christians receivingthe Holy Fire, 2009.get to work, I turned to these projects as volunteer work in order to keep mysanity. It was such a violent time that you had to keep your mind busy withsomething productive. I was travelling down roads where Palestinian fighterswere killing Israeli settlers at night, and during the day Israeli settlers wereshooting at Palestinian workers and children on their way to school. Then theIsraeli army came in and occupied all of the Palestinian territories in order todefend these illegal settlements. Now with the wall, it is only violent when theIsraeli army invades Palestinian homes or villages.Opposite: Taybeh Orthodox Church Housing Project.39
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…Krom, he who has been born in yo
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Old aerial view of Kromni, early 20
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Trebizond (Trabzon) city walls.
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