Elias Khoury, a Christian Arab, gazes at the church in Iqrit in December 1998. Khoury was born in Iqrit, where residents were forced out a half-century ago. On Christmas, they still attend services at the old stone church. (Photo by Heidi Levine)
Christian worshippers along the Via Dolorosa during the Good Friday procession in Jerusalem’s Old City.Christians held processions today in the Old City of Jerusalem and around the world as they marked the holiday of Good Friday,commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary .(Photo by Heidi Levine for The GroundTruth Project)
A worshipper prays during the opening ceremony of the Feast of Tabernacles. (Photo by Heidi Levine For The GroundTruth Project).
Thousands of Evangelical Christian pilgrims from around waving their national flags gathered for the Parade of Nations and opening ceremonies for the 2018 Feast of Tabernacles on September 24,2018 at the Pais Arena in Jerusalem. (Photo by Heidi Levine for The GroundTruth Project).
The ceremony at the Garden Tomb is accompanied by music. (Photo by Heidi Levine for The GroundTruth Project).
Pilgrims from all over the world converge in Israel for Sukkot. (Photo by Heidi Levine For The GroundTruth Project).
Hundreds of Christians around the world celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ during a sunrise prayer at the Garden Tomb in east Jerusalem on April 1,2018.The Garden Tomb is a site where some Christians believe the resurrection of Jesus Christ took place. Other Christians believe the most likely site is at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre inside the Old City of Jerusalem. (Photo by Heidi Levine for The GroundTruth Project).
Don Finto telling an audience at King of Kings that prophecy is being fulfilled. (Photo by Micah Danney/GroundTruth)
King of Kings founder and FIRM head Wayne Hilsden addresses conference attendees as his wife Ann looks on. (Photo by Micah Danney/GroundTruth)
Christian singer Martin Smith performs for American tourists at the Jerusalem Encounter conference. (Photo by Micah Danney/GroundTruth)
A Christian pilgrim from China blows a Shofar during a parade in Jerusalem on September 27,2018. Thousands of Christians from around the world participated in the march which was one of the major events of the week long Feast of Tabernacles festival also known as Sukkot. (Photo by Heidi Levine for The GroundTruth Project).
Thousands of Evangelical Christians from around the world attend the Parade of Nations and opening ceremonies for the 2018 Feast of Tabernacles at the Pais Arena in Jerusalem on September 24,2018. (Photo by Heidi Levine for The GroundTruth Project).
Christian worshippers at the Garden Tomb. (Photo by Heidi Levine for The GroundTruth Project).
Yair Seelig at his home in Jerusalem on April 2,2018. Photo by Heidi Levine for The Ground Truth Project
A Torah scroll is seen during a Bar mitzvah of a 12 year old boy as Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men of the Cohanim Priestly caste, many covered in their prayer shawls during a blessing during the Jewish holiday of Passover at the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray in Jerusalem’s old city, on Monday, April 2, 2018. The Cohanim, are believed to be descendants of priests who served God in the Jewish Temple before it was destroyed. (Photo by Heidi Levine for The GroundTruth Project).
Christian pilgrims from Taiwan participate during a parade in Jerusalem on September 27,2018. Thousands of Christians from around the world came to Jerusalem for the week long Feast of Tabernacles, also known as Sukkot. (Photo by Heidi Levine for The GroundTruth Project).
Christian pilgrims from China participate during a parade in Jerusalem on September 27,2018. Thousands of Christians from around the world came to Jerusalem for the week long Feast of Tabernacles, also known as Sukkot. (Photo by Heidi Levine for The GroundTruth Project).
Christian pilgrims from the USA participate during a parade in Jerusalem on September 27,2018. Thousands of Christians from around the world came to Jerusalem for the week long Feast of Tabernacles, also known as Sukkot. (Photo by Heidi Levine for The GroundTruth Project).
Orthodox Christian worshipers from around the world inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on Palm Sunday in the Old City of Jerusalem on April 1,2018.Hundreds of Orthodox Christians joined clergymen, holding palm fronds and olive tree branches as they participated in processions to mark the beginning of Easter week festivities. It is believed that the stone marks the place where Jesus’ body was prepared for burial after He was taken down from the cross. (Photo by Heidi Levine for The GroundTruth Project).
Armenian Orthodox Priests chanting at the Stone of Anointing, which is also called the Stone of Unction inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem on March 30,2018.This stone marks the place where Jesus’ body was prepared for burial after He was taken down from the cross. Christians around the world today marked Good Friday,commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. (Photo by Heidi Levine for The GroundTruth Project)
Christian worshiper Kevin Burner, 60, from Spencer,MA (left) with Christian worshippers at the prayer hall of the Kings of Kings Church in downtown Jerusalem on March 30,2018. Burner was in the US Airforce and then was a Pastor in California. (Photo by Heidi Levine for The GroundTruth Project)
Iraqi Christians Ester Shair ,82, is seen in her wheel chair as she visits the Church of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem during Good Friday on April 30,2018.The family left Baghdad after the Gulf War and some family members emigrated to the United States and Ester and her daughter moved to Australia. (Photo by Heidi Levine for The GroundTruth Project)
A Palestinian walks carries wooden crosses along the Via Dolorosa for the Christian worshipers during the Good Friday procession in Jerusalem’s Old City on March 30,2018.(Photo by Heidi Levine for The GroundTruth Project)
Christians in the Middle East
Christianity Vanishing in the Holy Land
The Way of Sorrow
Many here fear that the living community of local Christianity is about to disappear in the land where the faith began. The sorrow of Christians in the Middle East is no different than the sorrow all people, Muslims and Jews alike, feel at the violence that surrounds them. But Christians, as a minority faith, are often targeted.
The two church bombings by the Islamic State (ISIS) against Egypt’s Coptic Christian community killed 45 people on Palm Sunday. In Syria and Iraq, Christian minority communities have been brutalized and slaughtered by ISIS. In other countries like Lebanon and Jordan, decades of war in the region created a steady flow of migrants to Europe and America and left the communities shrinking year after year.
The GroundTruth Project, with support from the Henry Luce Foundation has been walking “The Way of Sorrow,” not just in Jerusalem but also from Bethlehem to Alexandria, Egypt, to hear the stories of indigenous Christians and why many are leaving.
This series was produced with the support of the Henry Luce Foundation
Twenty years ago, a movement known as Christian Zionism was on the furthest fringes in the land of Israel.
Back then, mainstream theologians — Christian and Jewish alike — dismissed Christian Zionism as a dangerous interpretation of biblical prophecies; the ideology was flawed at best, at its worst, inherently anti-Semitic.
Today, Christian Zionism has gone mainstream, with explosive growth in both fundraising and political power. Its journey is evident in today’s headlines in Israel-Palestine. When the United States announced a relocation of the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, many observers believed it was the Trump administration’s way of answering directly not only to the Israeli right but also to the American Christian evangelical base that supports Trump. Christian Zionists view the embassy move as a milestone on a prophetic timeline that aligns with an apocalyptic interpretation of scripture.
Based on in-depth reporting over the last two years, The GroundTruth Project has found that over the past 20 years the top Christian Zionist organizations have raised over $2 billion to support Israel, with a steady stream going directly to Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.
This series was produced with support from the Overseas Press Club Foundation and the Henry Luce Foundation.
