Around 16,000 Christians live in Jerusalem, comprising 1.7% of the population. Slightly less than one-third of these are Greek Orthodox Christians of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! May they prosper who love you! Peace be within your walls, and security within your towers!” (Psalm 122:6-7)
“Christian Establishments Vandalized Amid Escalation in Jerusalem,” International Christian Concern, February 2, 2023:
02/02/2023 (International Christian Concern) – Christians in the city of Jerusalem were targeted in several incidents in January. On January 4th more than 30 graves were vandalized by two young Jewish men who broke down crosses and smashed gravestones at the Protestant Mount Zion Cemetery. On January 26th, a group of Jewish youth vandalized an Armenian restaurant in the Christian Quarter of the Old City, while verbally insulting Christians including chants “death to Christians”, a phrase that has increasingly been graffitied on several Jerusalem church walls in recent weeks.
These attacks come at a time of escalating tensions between the cities’ diverse Christian, Jewish and Muslim populations. Christian leaders in Jerusalem have, in recent years, warned of the rapidly declining presence of Christians in the city where the earliest events of Christian history began 2,000 years ago. Political instability, threats and attacks by extremist groups, economic troubles and high emigration rates have reduced Jerusalem Christian population to less than 2% from its approximate 25% of the population 100 years ago….
