Church leaders raise plight of Christians at birthplace of faith

The Times (London)
December 22, 2006, Friday

BETHLEHEM British church leaders yesterday made a pilgrimage to
Bethlehem, praying with fellow pilgrims in the Church of the Nativity
and Manger Square, right.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and the Archbishop
of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, were joined by
the Reverend David Coffey, the Moderator of the Free Churches, and
Bishop Nathan Hovhannisian, the Primate of the Armenian Church of
Great Britain.

Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor, who was expressing his concern for the plight
of Christians in the Holy Land caught up in the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, described the visit as pastoral rather than political.

"I came here with my fellow pilgrims…to say to all Bethlehemites,
particularly the Christians who are here, that the rest of the
Christian Church is with them," he told pilgrims.

The clerics are on a four-day visit to the Holy Land from December
20 to tomorrow.