ATHENS, 13 JANUARY 2022. STATEMENT OF THE I.A.O. LEADERSHIP CONCERNING THE CURRENT CHALLENGES THE PATRIARCHATE OF JERUSALEM IS DEALING WITH
“The Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (I.A.O.) expresses its anguish and opposition to any attempt for alteration of the property status of the Old Patriarchate of Jerusalem in the Holy City of Jerusalem. We support that the inviolability of this property status is an essential element for the consolidation of peace in the region”.
The aforementioned were highlighted by the I.A.O. Secretary General Dr. Maximos Charakopoulos and the President of the I.A.O. General Assembly Mr. Sergei Gavrilov in their statement jointly issued regarding the current challenges the Patriarchate of Jerusalem is dealing with.
The heads of the international institution emphatically denounced these “illegal and terrorist acts of extremist parastatal groups in Israel against Christians as part of the further expulsion of the Christian element from the Holy Land and the wider Middle East region”, while they expressed their full solidarity with His Beatitude the Patriarch of Jerusalem and All Palestine Theophilus III.
Moreover, the institutional representatives of the I.A.O. called on the international community and stakeholders “to turn its eyes and stand in solidarity with the ordeal of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem and other Christian Churches by extremist circles”.
This statement-address was sent to the United Nations Secretary General Mr. António Gutteres, the President of the European Commission Ms Ursula von der Leyen, the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Mr. Josep Borell, the Prime Minister of Israel Mr. Naftali Bennett, the King Abdullah II of Jordan and the heads of the European Parliament, the Knesset, the House of Representatives of Jordan and the Lebanese Parliament. It has been also forwarded to the World Council of Churches, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem as well as to the autocephalous Orthodox churches and the Holy See.
It is recalled that one of the core activities of the inter-parliamentary organization of Orthodox MPs is the confrontation of the phenomenon of persecution of Christian populations in the Middle East, the cradle of Christianity.
Athens, 13 January 2022. Statement of the I.A.O. Leadership concerning the current challenges the Patriarchate of Jerusalem is dealing with
