Ross Dunn, Voice of America, April 20, 2003

Easter Sunday in the Holy Land was celebrated by a diminished flock of local Christians and only a handful of pilgrims from abroad. Nearly three years of violence has driven out many locals, and few tourists are now venturing to the area.

The dwindling group of Christians, who still live in what to them is the Holy Land, seems to be heading toward extinction.

A Christian foundation has been created to try to stem the exodus, and has issued an international appeal for help. The president is Brian Bush, an American who has married into the local community, and now lives in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Presenting his annual Easter message at a news conference in Jerusalem last week, the Latin Patriarch, Michel Sabbah, raised similar concerns. He said the problem is especially acute among Christian Palestinians in the West Bank.

And while many local Christians are fleeing the region, few of their counterparts abroad have been traveling to Jerusalem, since the start of the Israeli-Palestinian clashes in September 2000.

As a result, there have been no crowds at this year's Easter services at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the site in Jerusalem most closely associated with Jesus' death.

The Holy Sepulcher is located in the Old City, and is revered as the place where Jesus was crucified, laid to rest and, according to Christian belief, rose from the dead.

Before the troubles began, Easter brought so many tourists to Jerusalem that many had to be turned away from the crowded site. This year, the few visitors to Jerusalem found they could walk right into the ornate interior of the church.

Mr. Bush fears that in future years there may not be enough local Christians left to even maintain the shrines. "We are concerned about the holy sites themselves. The holy sites cannot exist in isolation; they need a living breathing community to validate them. And if, God forbid, in 20 years' time, there is no Christian community here, what is going to become of these places, which are memorializing the life of Jesus Christ?" he asked.

Father Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, a scholar and Roman Catholic priest at the Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem, agreed that while the sacred areas might still survive, the support of a strong local Christian community is still important.

Mr. Bush said this trend should not be allowed to continue. He said the Christian world should work toward encouraging the local community to strengthen its roots in the Holy Land.

He said that what is needed is prayer and gifts toward educational scholarships for students, job training programs for adults and housing for families.

Mr. Bush says such measures could help Christians to stay in the area, and prevent the Holy Land from losing what he calls a "vital part of its mosaic."