The Christian faith in Bethlehem

> Palestinian Christianity:

From the start Christianity in Palestine was characterized by differing movements. As early as the 1st century different christian communities co-existed in the Holy Land.

Today the challenge is to live unity in diversity. Pentecost is the birthday of the whole Church and for this reason the church at jerusalem is considered the Mother of all churches. Since the first Whitesun Pentecost there has been no break of christian presence in Palestine.

> Christian communities in Bethlehem:

1 - The Greek Orthodox Church:
The Greek Orthodox Patriararchate at Jerusalem is the oldest institution of this kind and was created at the council of Chalcedon in 451. this Christian congregation is one of the oldest in Bethlehem. Today it has 2000 members and Bethlehem is also the residence of the Bishop.

2 - The Greek-catholic church:
The establishment of the Greek-catholic church in the Holy Land goes back to the 17th century and resulted from Roman-catholic missionary work among greek-orthodox Christians. The name “greek-Catholic” signifies the identity of this church which while unifying with the church of rome maintained the Byzantine liturgy of the Greek-orthodox church. For this reason it was recognized as an autonomous patriarchate. The Greek-catholic church in Bethlehem was inaugurated in 1964, the congregation has about 500 members.

3 - The Armenian church:
In 301, almost twenty years before the beginning of the Constantine era, Armenia declared Christianity as its official religion. Armenian pilgrims for the first time came to the Holy Lane in the 4th century and a steadfast congregation settled in Jerusalem. In 1337 an armenian Patriarchate was established and in Bethlehem an armenian congregation exists since the Middle ages. While the armenian congregation at Jerusalem has increased in the twentieth century due to the imigration caused by the massacres in the Osman empire. The congregation at Bethlehem today only consists of about 40 families.

4 - The protestant-lutheran church:
The history of the Protestant-Lutheran church in the Holy Land began in 1841 when an Anglo-Brussian docese was founded in Jerusalem. The second bishop, Samuel Gobat, who was a member of the reformed church in Swetzerland, was nominated by the Brussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV and enthroned by the ardebishop of Canterbury. The bishop Gobat school recalls his name. However, he also founded the Protestant school in Bethlehem in 1854. in 1860 a chapel was built for the growin community of this denomination. The Evangelic-lutheran Christmaschurch was ready for services in 1893. presently, the Lutheran congregation nnumbers about 350 members.

5 - The Syrian Orthodox Church:
The Syrian Orthodox Church has its roots, which go back to the 5th and 6th centuries in Syria major, Asia Minor and Mesopotamia. There has been a permanent Syrian diocese in Jerusalem in 1471. in Bethlehem the first Syrian Christians must have settled approximately arround 1838. The majority of Syrian Christians arrived in Bethlehem following the massacre in Turkey (Turabdin) at the beginnig of the 20th century. In 1922 construction work started on the Syrian-orthodox St. Mary’s Church in Bethlehem and services started in 1928 while the Syrian-orthodox Patriarch, at that time, Elias Halule was officiating. the Syrian-Orthodox cemetery church of St. Ephrem, named after the high-ranking Syrian theologian, was erected in 1935. today, the Syrian congregation is the third largest in Bethlehem and has about 1000 members.

6 - The Roman-Catholic Church:
Francis of Assisi travelled in the Holy Land in 1219/20 after the time of the crusades there had been Franciscans residents in Palestine (without interuption) continuously since 1336. The original core of an independent Roman-Catholic congregation developed in 1550. Today’s St. Catherine’s Church, which was built in 1880, rests of the foundation of the Roman-Catolic church of the middle Ages. With its approximately 3000 members the Roman-Catholic congregation is the largest in Bethlehem.

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