في الساعة 11.00 من صباح يوم الجمعة الموافق 18 تشرين الثاني 2022 ، قام وفد من الممثلين الدبلوماسيين لنحو خمسين دولة أوروبية بزيارة البطريركية الأورشليمية والتقى بممثلي الكنائس المسيحية المحلية في القدس لبحث الأمور المتعلقة بمسيحيي الأرض المقدسة. وتكون الوفد الدبلوماسي من القنصل العام لليونان في القدس السيد فليوراس، قنصل السويد، قنصل فرنسا، قنصل إنجلترا وآخرين 

 والقى غبطة البطريرك كيريوس كيريوس ثيوفيلوس الثالث كلمة أمام الوفد الدبلوماسي هؤلاء الدبلوماسيون المتميزون ، بمن فيهم، خاطبهم سموه. أبانا وبطريرك القدس ثيوفيلوس من خلال العنوان التالي باللغة الإنجليزية:

Welcome to the Diplomatic Corps at the Imperial Hotel

H.B.  Theophilos III

18 Νοέμβριος

Your Excellencies, Respected Members of the Diplomatic Corps,

Your Eminences,

Your Graces,

We welcome you to this gathering at the Patriarchate, and we wish once again to express our deep appreciation to you for the unfailing attention chat you give to our concerns and challenges here.

As you are fully aware, essential to our mission as the Churches and Christian Communities of the Holy Land is to ensure the Christian character of Jerusalem and the Holy Land. The responsibility of serving and stewarding our properties and the Holy Places has been laid on our shoulders, and we take this responsibility most seriously. As we are more and more the target of radical groups in our society, we rely on the help and support of diplomatic, government, and Church agencies to help us in this mission.

It Is of vital importance to maintain the historic Status Quo. The Status Quo is the principal historic guarantee, acknowledged by all, that ensures the well-being of the Churches and the Christian communities of the Holy Land. The Status Quo also guarantees the protection of the Holy Places that are the common heritage of the three Abrahamic faiths.

So, we are grateful for your presence here, and we welcome this conversation.

We would now like to invite our colleagues among the bishops to say a few words.

وأعرب رؤساء وممثلو الكنائس عن شكرهم لهذا اللقاء وأطلعوا الوفد عن المشاكل التي يواجهها المسيحيون في الأراضي المقدسة.

تحدث السيد أوستن تيفاني من مؤسسة ICHOS أيضًا عن هذه المشكلات.

بعد االقاء قي مقر البطريركية، قدّم صاحب الغبطة ورؤساء الكنائس للوفد الدبلوماسي وجبة طعام في فندق إمبريال بجوار بوابة يافا، وبعدها قام الوفد بجولة في تل صهيون المقدسة حيث أقيم العشاء الأخير وحدث الخمسين. كما زار الوفد المدرسة البطريركية ومقابر الطوائف المسيحية التي أقيمت على تل صهيون منذ القرن الثالث عشر، وتم إطلاعهم على اعتداءات العناصر المتطرفة على هذه الأماكن المقدسة.

واختتم صاحب الغبطة الاجتماع  قائلاً إننا كمسيحيين لا تثبطهم تحديات العناصر المتطرفة، لأن كنيسة القيامة هي الضمان الأضمن والأكثر استقرارًا لإستمرار الحفاظ على الوضع الراهن (Status Quo) في المدينة المقدسة.

مكتب السكرتارية العامة

نظّم  قادة الكنائس المحلية في المدينة المقدسة ظهر يوم الخميس الموافق 17 تشرين ثاني 2022 حفل استقبال ومأدبة عذاء على شرف فخامة رئيسة دولة هنغاريا السيدة كاتالين نوفاك في بيت الضيافة التابع للكنيسة الأنجليكانية في القدس التي يرأسها سيادة المطران حسام نعوم.  ورافق السيدة كاتالين نوفاك وزير الخارجية ووزير الدفاع وسفيرهنغاريا في رام الله السيد تشابا رادا.

نيابة عن رؤساء الكنائس القى صاحب الغبطة كيريوس كيريوس ثيوفيلوس الثالث بطريرك المدينة المقدسة أورشليم كلمة باللغة الإنجليزية:

Madame President,

Mr Ambassador,

Your Eminences,

Your Graces,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We welcome you warmly to the Holy City of Jerusalem and to our Patriarchate, and we wish to express our appreciation for your visit. Your presence here is a powerful and important sign of your recognition of and interest in the challenges that the Christian presence and the Churches are facing here.

We are thankful for the long-standing and good relationship between the Government of Hungary and our Patriarchate. We are especially grateful for the significant contribution that the Government of Hungary made to the restoration of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and we are also aware of the further help that the Government has made to another project under the sponsorship of the Franciscans in Cana of Galilee.

We are also appreciative of the ongoing concern that the Government of Hungary has for the well-being of the Christian presence in the Holy Land and in the broader region of the Middle East. All this practical and moral support means so much to the Christian community and to the leaders of the Churches, and we cannot emphasise too much the value that we place on this relationship between the Government and the people of Hungary and the Holy Land.

Our role as the Churches and Christian communities of the Holy Land is to serve and protect the Holy Places, among them the principal sites of the Church of the Nativity, which contains within it the site of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Church of the Resurrection, where the sites of the crucifixion and the resurrection are venerated. Our mission in the service of the Holy Places is to ensure the integrity of the religious character of the Holy Land in general, and the Christian character of this region in particular.

Recent years and recent events have seen a new and deeper unity of purpose as the Heads of the Churches have worked together. We are united in this common mission. In this regard, it is significant that we are meeting today here are Saint George’s, the home of the Anglican Archbishop, and we would like to take this opportunity to thank our brother, Archbishop Hosam, both for his hospitality and for his leadership.

As Heads of the Churches, we are doing our best at every level to help Christians remain in the Holy Land, and we are also making every effort to welcome pilgrims, who are once again flocking to the Holy Land in increasing numbers as we move into a post-pandemic world. Both those who live here as well as those who come here on pilgrimage, are close to our hearts, and as Church leaders we never forget the importance of this pastoral and spiritual mission.

We wish you success in your mission here, and we welcome you as a pilgrim. MAY God bless you as you move about the Holy Land, and as you carry out the duties of your high office on behalf of the people of Hungary.

As a token of our deep appreciation for the commitment of the Government of Hungary to the Holy Land and for all that you are doing here, on behalf of our colleagues and brothers, we wish to invest you with the Cross of the Holy Sepulchre.

Thank you.

خلال هذه الزيارة ، قدم غبطة البطريرك صليبًا للسيدة نوفاك, كما قدم روساء الكنائس هدايا تذكارية.

وشكرت فخامة الرئيس رؤساء الكنائس على هذا التكريم ووعدت بأن يتجلى اهتمام بلادها بمسيحيي الأرض المقدسة.

ستقوم السيدة نوفاك يوم السب الموافق 19 تشرين ثاني 2022 بزيارة كنيسة القيامة في زيارة خاصة.

مكتب السكرتارية العامة

نحن بطاركة ورؤساء الكنائس في القدس، نعرب عن بالغ امتناننا وتقديرنا لصاحب الجلالة الملك عبد الله الثاني، حفظه الله ورعاه، ملك الأردن، الوصي الهاشمي على المقدسات المسيحية والإسلامية في الأرض المقدسة، على وصفه الحقيقي والصادق لوضع مسيحيي الأرض المقدسة، وخاصة في القدس، خلال خطابه الذي حظي بتقدير كبير في الجمعية العامة للأمم المتحدة التي عُقدت في 20 أيلول 2022.

كما نحيي التزام جلالة الملك العلني، بحماية الوضع التاريخي والقانوني القائم، وبالتالي الحفاظ على سلامتنا وعلى سلامة مستقلبنا. جهود جلالة الملك لدق نواقيس الحذر من تدهور أوضاع حقوق الإنسان المسيحي الأساسية، تبعث برسالة قوية إلى العالم حول المخاطر المتعلقة بالتراث والوجود المسيحي في القدس وباقي الأراضي المقدسة.

إننا ندعو المجتمع الدولي ككل، وجميع محبي السلام من جميع أنحاء العالم، إلى العمل بناءً على تحذيرات جلالة الملك الذي وجهه في خطابه في جمعية الأمم المتحدة.

حسب العادة المتبعة للكنائس في المدينة المقدسة للزيارات الأخوية بمناسبة عيد الفصح المجيد, قام وفد من أخوية الفرنسيسكان على رأسه حارس الأرض المقدسة ورئيس الأخوية الأب فرانسيسكو باتون يوم الأربعاء الموافق 27 نيسان 2022 (14 نيسان شرقي) من أسبوع التجديدات, بزيارة أخوية القبر المقدس للمعايدة والتهنئة. كان في إستقبال الوفد غبطة البطريرك كيريوس كيريوس ثيوفيلوس الثالث مع آباء أخوية القبر المقدس, حيث القى كلمة ترحيب بمناسبة هذه الزيارة:

Your Paternity, dear Father Francesco,

Beloved members of our respective Brotherhoods,

Dear Fathers

We welcome you warmly to our Patriarchate and we thank you for your thoughtful and heartfelt Paschal greetings.

We are living at a time when the contrast between the darkness of Good Friday and the light of Easter have never been more apparent to us. On Good Friday we sang these words:

The whole creation was charged in fear,

When it saw you, O Christ,

Hanging on the Cross.

(Good Friday Vespers)

And now we can sing:

Your resurrection, O Christ our Saviour,

Has enlightened the whole world;

And you have restored your own creature.

(Paschal Vespers)

This experience of darkness and light in our liturgy mirrors the experience of darkness and light in our life and in our world.

The common purpose and efforts in which our Brotherhoods have been engaged in recent years have borne real fruit. In the care of the Holy Places and in the restoration of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Church of the Nativity, we have accomplished much of importance together. Our united voice and witness have brought to the attention of the world the increasing challenges and threats that we face, and we take the opportunity of this blessed feast to thank you once again for your steadfast commitment to this.

We are fully aware of the realities we are experiencing in this Holy City and our beloved Holy Land. These realities include the increased activity of well-known Israeli radical groups against Christian properties at Jaffa Gate and New Gate. They also include the authorities and many police obstacles that our worshippers have faced in coming to the Holy Fire ceremony. It is incumbent upon us, who have built such an effective partnership, to continue to do our best to encourage the other members of the Christian family here to be drawn into our cooperation. For our best future depends on our deepening cooperation and our clear united witness.

Day by day we must keep our presence in the Holy Land visible, locally, regionally, and internationally. At this time of the year the year the eyes of the world are on the Holy Land, and what they see when they look on us is crucial. They must understand our common mission as a Christian family here. Therefore, it is time to lay aside matters of pride and triviality for the sake of the greater good and for the sake of protecting the Christian presence in this region.

Pilgrims come here precisely to escape the darkness and difficulty of so much of life around the world. They come here to find comfort in times of fear, peace in times of unrest and violence; spiritual safety in times of worldly danger. They come here from the Good Friday of their daily lives even just for a brief glimpse of the light of the resurrection and the hope that this brings to them. In the Christian family here they must see this same comfort, this same peace, this same spiritual safety, this same light and hope.

As we keep this joyful Eastertide, let us recommit ourselves to this spiritual mission to which the Divine Providence has called us. Let us encourage our brothers and sisters in the Christian family and beyond to join us in this collective witness to the light of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us, as the Liturgy reminds us, lay aside every earthly care, that we may receive the King of all who is risen from the dead, and who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9).

MAY God bless you, dear Father Francesco, and your Brotherhood during this glorious season of the Light that shines from the All-holy and Life-giving Tomb, and MAY God bless all those entrusted in your care.

Christ is risen!

Thank you.

بعد أخوية الفرنسيسكان زار البطريركية وفد من البطريركية اللاتينية على رأسه غبطة البطريرك بيير باتيستا بيتزابيلا, ووفود عن الكنيسة القبطية, الكنيسة السريانية, الكنيسة الأثيوبية والكنيسة اللوثرية.

غبطة البطريرك كيريوس كيريوس ثيوفيلوس الثالث القى ترحيب بمناسبة هذه الزيارة:

our Beatitude, dear Archbishop Pizzaballa,

Your Eminences,

Your Graces,

Dear Fathers,

We welcome you gladly to our Patriarchate, and we thank you for your greetings as we celebrate this Easter feast. Our journey over these last few days has taken us from the darkness and fear of Good Friday to the triumph and joy of Easter Day.

With the Most Holy Mother of God on Good Friday we lamented:

Where, O my Son and God,

are the good tidings of the Annunciation

that Gabriel brought me?

He called you King and God and Son of the Most High;

And now, O my sweet Light,

I behold you naked, wounded, lifeless.

(Good Friday Vespers)

And yet, now we can sing with equal fervour:

Your resurrection, O Christ Saviour,

has enlightened the whole world.

(Paschal Vespers)

We celebrate this Paschal Feast, confident that light has overcome the darkness, and hope has banished fear. This is the heart of the message that the world longs to hear in these times of war and conflict, confusion and distress, instability and dread.

In this Holy City in our beloved Holy Land, we are celebrating this blessed season confronted by certain realities that we must face. These realities include the increased activity of well-known Israeli radical groups against Christian properties at Jaffa Gate and New Gate. They also include the authorities and many police obstacles that our worshippers have faced in coming to the Holy Fire ceremony. Therefore, this is a reminder that we must be ever vigilant in remaining united in our common purpose, if we are to present ourselves, and be seen by others locally, regionally, and internationally, to be a Christian family here. As Saint Paul says, who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? (Romans 8:35).

We rejoice in the strength and commitment of the mutual respect and understanding that exist between us, and we take this blessed opportunity, Your Beatitude, to express our gratitude for, and our recognition of, all that you have done and continue to do to ensure the best possible cooperation between our two communities.

We must continue to do all in our power to bring along the other members of our Christian family here into a closer fellowship of purpose and resolve. We must build on the foundation that we share, so that we may be stronger to meet the challenges and difficulties that we are all facing in the current climate. As we read in the First Epistle of Saint Peter, Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves, must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God MAY be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 4:11).

A world wrapped in fear looks to Jerusalem in hope, especially this season. MAY we, in all that we do, embrace without reserve our common vocation to be a living witness to this hope. MAY we be those who live the light of the resurrection, so that all those who are bound by terror and despair MAY find here joy, renewal and encouragement.

MAY God bless you, Your Beatitude, your colleagues, and the communities that you serve, and MAY the light that shines from the All-holy Tomb and Life-giving Tomb of our Lord Jesus Christ banish all fear and darkness from our minds and hearts.

Christ is risen!

Thank you.

نيابة عن صاحب الغبطة والبطريركية الأورشليمية قام سيادة رئيس أساقفة سبسطية كيريوس ثيوذوسيوس بزيارة الكنيسة القبطية, الكنيسة السريانية والكنيسة الأثيوبية التي تحتفل أيضاً بعيد الفصح المجيد حسب التقويم الشرقي للمعايدة والتهنئة.

أيضاً في أسبوع التجديدات زارت البطريركية وفود من الرعايا الأورثوذكسية التابعة للبطريركية لمعايدة صاحب الغبطة وأخوية القبر القدس.

مكتب السكرتارية العامة

صباح يوم الثلاثاء العظيم الموافق 19 نيسان 2022 (6 نيسان شرقي) وحسب العادة المتبعة, ترأس غبطة البطريرك كيريوس كيريوس ثيوفيلوس الثالث وفداً من أخوية القبر المقدس لزيارة الكنائس الغربية في المدينة المقدسة التي أحتفلت بعيد الفصح المجيد, حيث زارت أخوية القبر المقدس بدايةً أخوية الفرنسيسكان وكان بإستقبالهم حارس الأرض المقدسة ورئيس الأخوية الأب فرنشيسكو باتون.

خلال الزيارة القى صاحب الغبطة كلمة معايدة:

Your Paternity, dear Father Francesco,

Beloved Members of our Respective Brotherhoods,

Dear Fathers,

We greet you today as you celebrate the Feast of Easter with joy and in Paschal hope. As Saint John of Damascus says on this feast:

For it is meet that the heavens should rejoice,

and that the earth should be glad,

and that the whole world, both visible and invisible,

should keep the feast;

for Christ, our everlasting joy, hath risen.

(The Canon of Pascha)

We celebrate the Paschal Feast with joy and hope, even in the face of so many challenges around the world and throughout our region. We celebrate the Paschal Feast with joy and hope, even in the face of conflicts and wars around the world. We celebrate the Paschal Feast with joy and hope, even in the face of grave difficulties facing our communities in this Holy City.

For we are privileged to celebrate Easter on the very spot where the blood of the Righteous One was shed and in the very place from which He was raised from the dead. This alone is a cause of joy and hope.

We remind ourselves at Easter that ours is an apostolic mission as the guardians and servants of the Holy Places, a mission of prayer, peace, reconciliation, and salvation.

And we have seen remarkable fruits of this mission in our common work to continue and complete the restoration of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. At no time in our history have our two Brotherhoods been in closer alliance and collaboration, and this is itself a cause of both joy and hope. We wish to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to you for your unwavering commitment to this work.

In our common mission, we continue to work to defend the rights of Christians to worship at the Holy Places and especially in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre during this holiest of seasons in the face of the attempts by the authorities to restrict the number of worshipers. Together, we are standing against increasing threats from Israeli radical groups at Jaffa Gate and at New Gate, which have been exacerbated by the trespass into the Little Petra Hostel. And these incidents are in addition to the increase in the daily insults and intimidation to which our clergy and people are subjected.

As we celebrate this joyful and hopeful Paschal season, we recommit ourselves to our shared responsibility to do all in our power to preserve the Christian character of Jerusalem and to make it possible morally, spiritually, and materially for Christians to remain here in Jerusalem and in the Middle East. This is our home, and the power of the witness of the Gospel of peace, forgiveness, and reconciliation in our broken and confused world depends on a vibrant Christian presence in the Holy Land.

We wish you, dear Father Francesco, your Brotherhood and the communities that you serve, a joyful and hope-filled Easter.

Christ is risen!

Thank you.

بعد أخوية الفرنسيسكان زار الوفد البطريركي البطريركية اللاتينية حيث كان بإستقباله غبطة البطريرك بيير باتيستا بيزابيلا.

خلال الزيارة القى صاحب الغبطة كلمة معايدة:

Your Beatitude, dear Archbishop Pizzaballa,

Your Eminences,

Your Graces,

Dear Fathers,

We greet you, Your Beatitude, on the occasion of your celebration of the Easter Feast with the joyful words of the hymnographer:

Rejoice, O peoples, and be glad.

An angel sat upon the stone of the tomb;

He himself proclaimed the glad tidings to us, saying:

Christ is risen from the dead,

the Saviour of the world,

and he has filled all things with fragrance.

Rejoice, O peoples and be glad.

(Matins of Bright Week)

We keep this joyful Paschal season at a time of great difficulty. Around the world, in our region, and in this Holy City, the human family faces a tremendous challenge. There are wars and conflicts abroad, and here at home, the Christian communities are enduring unprecedented threats to our very existence and to the integrity of the true character of Jerusalem and the Holy Land.

And yet, we keep the Paschal Feast with joy and confidence. We are bound together in our common mission here, and we have shown our united witness in the face of those who would undermine both our way of life as well as the historic and universally recognised basis of our rights and privileges as those who have lived and worshipped here for centuries. We are the living witness that Jerusalem and the Holy Land belong to one community exclusively; this is a home to peoples of diverse faiths and traditions, and our mission is to ensure that all may live and worship in Jerusalem and the Holy Land safely and in harmony.

We wish to take this opportunity to commend you, Your Beatitude, for your ongoing commitment to your own pastoral work and mission. In times like the present, when our people are living under such tremendous pressure, the pastoral vocation of the Church I sour the utmost importance. We have the responsibility to do all that is in our power – morally, spiritually and practically – to support and help our communities so that Christians are able to remain here in their homes and with their livelihoods. At no other time in recent history has the health and strength of the Christian presence here been more vital.

The good relations that we share and the common witness in the face of challenges that we show are of crucial importance in maintaining the Christian presence here. We are committed to deepening these relations and strengthening our common witness so that the world may know and understand the seriousness of our mission.

Among these commitments is the defence of the rights of Christians to worship at the Holy Places and especially in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre during this holiest of seasons in the face of the attempts by the authorities to restrict the numbers of worshipers. Also, we stand together to protect the Christian Quarter against increasing threats from Israeli radical groups at Jaffa Gate and at New Gate, which have now found a new extreme in the trespass into the Little Petra Hostel. And we continue to raise our collective voice in the face of increased daily insults and intimidation to which our clergy and people are subjected.

Our shared commitment to defend and preserve the Christian presence here gives us joy and confidence in this Paschal season, and this is why we can rejoice, even in the face of all that is happening in our world and in our region. For in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead we have been given the assurance of the ultimate victory of life over death. As Saint Paul reminds us,

I am convinced that neither death,

nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present,

nor things to come, nor powers,

nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,

will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

(Romans 8:38-39)

We wish you, Your Beatitude, and your communities, the joy of this Easter Feast, and the confidence that is our in the resurrection. MAY God bless you and you care for those who are entrusted to your pastoral oversight.

Christ is risen!

Thank you.

أخيراً قام صاحب الغبطة يرافقه السكرتير العام للبطريركية سيادة رئيس أساقفة قسطنطيني أريسترخوس والترجمان قدس الأرشمندريت ماتيوس بزيارة القاصد الرسولي ممثل الفاتيكان في القدس, وأسقف الكنيسة الإنجليكانية المطران حسام نعوم.

مكتب السكرتارية العامة