Church of All Nations, Jerusalem
Church of All Nations, Jerusalem - Christians living in the Holy Land are a community with a future more vulnerable than it needs to be - challenged by violence, migration and lack of investment, a new study reveals. Researchers discovered that the Christian community in Israel, Jordan and Palestine makes a wide-ranging contribution to building civil society, new start-ups, excellence in education and in health and other humanitarian sectors. However they also found major concerns that, especially in Israel, an unfair visa system and lack of benefits may undermine recruitment and retention of clergy that the churches need to continue building the communities and life of the Holy Land. Experts found that Christians reported mistreatment on religious grounds and feel threatened by abusive behaviour - for example, increasing grievance among Palestinian Muslims increased the risk of verbal and physical attacks against minority Palestinian Christian communities. An absence of adequate data tracking and addressing Christian poverty was also undermining the community in Israel and the government's claims to be improving in this area, whilst anecdotal and informal evidence of increasing poverty suggested its rapid increase. University of Birmingham experts worked with counterparts at the International Community of the Holy Sepulchre (ICoHS) - publishing their findings today in the report 'Defeating Minority Exclusion and Unlocking Potential: Christianity in the Holy Land'.
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