Eastern Orthodox Christians in Gaza Prepare for Holy Week
Eastern Orthodox Christians in Gaza Prepare for Holy
Week
On Friday I went with a friend to the
Eastern Orthodox Church in the Old City of Gaza, to help
make palm crosses for Palm Sunday which, for them, is
tomorrow.
The place was a hive of activity, with
many young people busily making crosses and other
decorations from palm fronds, under the tutelage of the
older members of the community.
One of the senior
members told me that there are about 2,500 Christians in
Gaza, the majority of whom are Orthodox I asked if their
numbers were increasing, and he said no, they are
diminishing.
“Most send their children outside
after they finish secondary school,” he told me. “Those
that can afford it, anyway. It is not because they are
afraid of the government, but because there is no work. If
the economic conditions improve, many of them will return
because they are Palestinians, and for every Palestinian,
living in Palestine is very important to
them.”
He said that they have been living
peacefully with Muslims for thousands of years, and they
have no problems between them, and love them like
brothers.
“It is different from Egypt,” he
said, referring to recent clashes between Christians and
Muslims there.
“We have a good relationship
between the leaders of our churches and the leaders of the
political parties and the Islamic leaders,” he continued.
“We are free to follow our traditions, they respect us and
we respect them. Members of the Hamas government come to
visit us during our feasts,” he added.
He said
the Gaza Orthodox community are nearly all refugees.
“Israel didn’t distinguish between Christians and
Muslims, they drove out all Palestinians regardless of their
religion.”
“Before the Second Intifada there
were more than 5,000 Christians in Gaza, but after it, many
Christians left, not because of Hamas, but because of the
difficult situation here,” he went on. “We need to keep
our children in Gaza, we don’t want them all to go, so we
try to make this place fun, a place where the young people
can come and escape the pressures of daily life and
relax.”
It was clear that many found it exactly
that – there were spontaneous outbursts of singing, a lot
of laughing, and much teasing and playfulness.
How
do you keep the traditions alive? I asked.
“By
practising them,” he replied. “This today is actually
‘Sunday’ School – we have two groups, one in the
morning for 5-12 year olds, and one in the afternoon for
13-18 year olds. On Sunday we will all celebrate Palm
Sunday, which marks the beginning of our Holy Week. On
Thursday we will celebrate the crucifixion, on Friday Jesus
being taken to the tomb, and on Sunday, his resurrection.
You are welcome to come.”
It’s a
date!
ENDS