© Foto: Mitri Raheb | Unusual emptiness at the Christmas Church in Bethlehem on Easter Day 2020. In other years, the street would be densely populated.

On 5 March 2020, the first cases of coronavirus were diagnosed in the city of Beit Jala next to Bethlehem. Within a few hours, the three cities of Beit Jala, Beit Sahour and Bethlehem were shut down. On the same day the Church of the Nativity, which is visited by close to two million tourists a year, closed its door to tourists and local worshippers alike. A few days later the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was shut down, together with al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

The closure of these places of worship is unprecedented in history. On March 14th the heads of churches in Jerusalem issued a statement asking their members to abide by the law and regulations of the “civil authorities” with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic. What this entailed was to refrain from gatherings on Sundays and other days of the week and to stay home. This situation was unique because even under curfew, many Christians and Muslims used to gather to pray not only as an expression of faith but also as a symbol of creative resistance to the Israeli occupation.

For both clergy and lay Christians, it was not easy to stay away from church services and events, especially as mid-March marked the seasons of Passion and Lent with special services held every Friday and culminating in Palm Sunday and Holy Week. It was not an easy decision for the heads of churches to cancel the Palm Sunday procession, the Good Friday procession carrying the cross along the Via Dolorosa, or the Holy Fire ceremony on Saturday with the multitude of people carrying their candles and waiting for the Holy Light to come out of the tomb. It was not an easy decision for Muslims to refrain from Ramadan’ evening prayers or the Friday worship at al-Aqsa Mosque.

New Forms of Religious Expressions

I observed with interest new forms of religious expression evolving under these conditions.

1. Usually priests and pastors urge their members to come to church. For the first time ever, priests told parishioners n social media, to stay home to minimize the spread of infection. Taking care of your neighbor by not infecting them was presented as a Christian virtue of loving one’s neighbor and thus loving God (Mark 12:31).

2. Palestinian theologians have highlighted that necessities set their own rules by quoting the words of Jesus: “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. (Mark 2:27). This means that human life has the highest priority in religion and takes precedence over any religious purity or ceremonial observation.

3. Palestinian theologians stress the theological meaning of the word ‘church’. It is community of believers, not the stone building that we gather in. They reminded the faithful that whenever two or three people gather in the name of Jesus, he is in their midst (Matthew 18:20). Thus, they encouraged people to pray at home as a Christian family in a manner similar to the early church meetings when no church buildings were yet erected. Reexperiencing these ancient forms of a ‘house church’ was important and transformative during this pandemic. As one pastor put it, “The church is not empty, the church has been deployed”.

4. If people are not allowed to come to church, then the church must reach people in their homes Several churches started to broadcast their services via social media and live streaming started to pop up everywhere in Palestine. Members could stay at home and celebrate the liturgy with their pastors while drinking their morning coffee. They would listen to sermons while preparing their meal. Many older people who were not tech-savvy were asked by the pastor to download Zoom so they could participate in Bible study. Thus a different kind of virtual community was created by utilizing the new media. While some of these phenomena were known in countries like the US and Europe, these were brand new forms of religious participation in Palestine.

5. The use of social media by churches transformed the isolated church in Palestine into a transnational community. While watching the Easter service online, I could see that former members of the Christmas Lutheran Church who now lived in the UK, USA, Austria and Germany were participating in the service with us. Even friends from Sweden and Malaysia were tuning in. Friends from Lebanon, living in secluded areas, were eager to follow the service from Bethlehem. Suddenly, the isolation behind closed doors was defeated and a new sense of unity and a transnational community became visible.

6. The cancelation of important mass ceremonies like the Palm Sunday procession or limiting the Holy Fire ceremony to clergy only was a great loss for many Christians. Yet, churches came up with alternatives. In the city of Beit Jala, on Palm Sunday, the Catholic youth brought formed palm branches into small crosses and drove through the town with their car decorated with palm branches. Playing Palm Sunday songs, they went from home to home distributing the crosses they had made. The Orthodox youth in Bethlehem did something comparable on Holy Saturday; they received the Holy Fire from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and drove from home to home to share the light while playing songs of Christ’s resurrection. This was an uplifting message for people suffering from a deadly virus and aching for life.

7. The use of social media was not something only for the clergy. It was heartening to see the most vulnerable, the elderly in Palestine, using this medium to spread their message. The Ajyal program for the elderly is one of the outreach ministries of the Diyar consortium. Diyar started this program in 2006 to activate the elderly with psychological-social and creative services. Ajyal members have their own book clubs, choirs, theater groups, yoga groups, educational outings, trips, retreats and more. They encouraged their members to make a short video with a positive message to post on Facebook. Several of the elderly people, some over eighty years old, recorded short video-clips while they were baking Easter cookies, teaching their grandchildren songs or helping them with their homework. They shared these videos in multiple languages: Arabic, English, German, French and Spanish, to uplift people with their message of hope. What emerged here was not a fearful community but a robust and vibrant one.

8. The pandemic has taken an economic toll on people worldwide. For Christians in Bethlehem and its surrounding cities whose livelihoods depend exclusively on tourism, COVID- 19 has meant loss of income not only temporarily, but for months if not years to come. A key function of the church is to care for the poor, the unemployed and the needy. Churches from all denominations were eager to help, to distribute food and funds to the needy. What has been most striking is that many Christian youth groups, along with their Muslim brothers and sisters, took the initiative on their own to fundraise for the needy, to ask people for the names of needy families so that they could lend them a hand. These forms of social solidarity reflected a unity in humanity. People from Hebron in the south and Toubas in the north were eager to support people in Bethlehem by providing fruits, vegetables and groceries. A beautiful tapestry of a united Palestinian community was once more visible.

9. The Lockdown took from us so much, but it gave us also something very precious: time. It was important thus to urge people not to waste the time available but to redeem (Ephesians 5:16) and make the best use of it to practice a hobby, to read a book, to write articles, produce paintings and art, spend time with the family and to plan for the future. I was thrilled to see students at Dar al-Kalima University posting their short films on social media, tackling issues like how to overcome loneliness during lockdown, or to learn to listen to nature that was recovering because of the lockdown and to the birds that could be heard singing everywhere.

10. Last but not least, the pandemic is a challenge of global dimension. The virus does not discriminate between an Israeli and a Palestinian, between an American or a Chinese. It is already clear that unless the vaccine will be available to everyone and not only to those countries who can afford it, there will be no chance to confine the virus. It is Christ’s love to the world and to the least that inspires us to care for those left behind, African American like George Floyd who can’t breathe because of four hundred years of systemic injustice, or Iyad Halak, an autist Palestinian murdered by Israeli soldiers who have been occupying Palestinian land for over five decades. Justice is therefore an important key to peace, reconciliation and healing.

Christ’s moving love

The Love of Christ has pushed the church during this pandemic to rethink its practice. Putting the people first and taking care of the neighbor by keeping physical distance was seen as more important than gathering for a church service. The pandemic has shown that the poor, the elderly, the sick, the Afro-Americans, the Palestinians, the Latin Americans are the most vulnerable. The love of Christ is calling the church to give all the attention to the subaltern. The love of Christ should move the church to advocate for the health rights of those forgotten including free vaccination. One thing will not change: the world before and after COVID-19 will continue to be in dire need for Christ’s love, and for a church that boldly proclaims justice, unity and reconciliation.

By Mitri Raheb for EMW Annual Report 2019/2020

About the Author

Dr. Mitri Raheb is founder and president of the Dar al-Kalima University College of Arts and Culture in Bethlehem.