The Situation in Jerusalem

These days it's easy to find internet coverage - try searching here - of the (ongoing) attempt to replace the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem after he may or may not have essentially signed over Church-owned Palestinian-leased land in the Old City of Jerusalem to an Israeli Jewish settler group. I have no inside information, just that Orthodoxy in the Near East is a very, very old institution, with lots of humanity and complexity and politics, good and bad. Since we don't have an authoritarian figure, we're more dependent on...each other. The Church is holy, but full of sinners like me. Anciently it was compared to a hospital for the sick, a place of healing full of sick people. We don't depose Primates willy-nilly...but we can depose them in serious cases. Apparently enough of Irenaeus' fellow bishops in the Holy Land think this a serious case. It's all very sad and embarrassing and risks discrediting the Orthodox Gospel...or as some say, revealing how powerful the Holy Spirit is in keeping us a going concern through all these years in spite of ourselves.

Please pray for us.