An Orthodox View on Gaza

 I offer you no comments on What about “The Songs of Zion” (Ps. 137:3)?: The Orthodox Church and the Conflict in Gaza from Hieromonk Athanasius (Bukin). I suggest reading the whole essay, as the points I copied below are what struck me the hardest. But most importantly - think about what you read.

Assessing the reaction of the Orthodox to the violence in Gaza and Israel isn’t easy. One needs to keep in mind many different factors that influence such a reaction, the complex nature of the Orthodox communities in the Middle East in general, the various statuses of Church leaders and their flocks, and so forth.

First of all, while the majority of the clergy holding the highest offices in the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem are of Greek origin and citizenship, the majority of the laypeople and parish clergy are locals spread all over the Holy Land, for most of whom Arabic is their mother tongue. This leads to the inevitable necessity for the Church of Jerusalem to be cautious in its statements, and to be aware of a specific context in which its words are heard and interpreted.

Secondly, Christians nowadays constitute a minority of the population in the Middle East in general. It means that particular Churches have to adapt to different contexts and to keep good relations with surrounding religious authorities, which are often intertwined with civil ones. It also means that very often they need to make joint statements to be heard at all.

Thirdly, there’s an Orthodox-specific tendency to be in quite close connection with the state authorities, which isn’t as straightforward in the Middle East, where jurisdictions frequently do not coincide with political borders and often cover several completely different if not hostile to each other states. Thus, there’s no real familiar Church-Nation or Church-State bond one expects to see in traditionally Orthodox countries. It makes the crucial decisions for the ecclesiastical institutions especially complicated, and the agreements they make often have a fluid and not public character.

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To sum up, it is obvious that like all other Christian communities in the Middle East, the Jerusalem Patriarchate always condemns any violence without taking a position on either side. At the same time being aware of the manyfold risks that their communities are exposed to, it has to be very careful in expressing its position.

Furthermore, it is essential to keep in mind that in the Holy Land, nowadays one encounters not only the local Orthodox Church of Jerusalem with its mostly Greek hierarchy and mostly Arab-speaking flock. There are also people coming from the traditionally Orthodox countries, whether foreign workers, Israeli repatriates, or people married to the locals on either side of the conflict. Some of them comprise communities within the Church of Jerusalem. Others do not associate themselves directly with the latter, but participate in its worship, as well as in the divine services of the representatives of other local Orthodox Churches present in the Holy Land. However, the views of these various groups often differ from the official views of Church institutions and depend on their personal views and loyalties, place of residence, education, experience, etc. And their views cannot be expressed by any singular person or institution.

sch 11/9