I was talking to a friend of mine on the ways to more energize already our dynamic knights and Ladies of the Holy Sepulcher.

I came with these ideas that could ENERGIZE some people:

a)  Who feel that the situation in the Holy Land is not encouraging, and feel unable to do anything for it
b) Who lost contact with the Holy land after their last visit and have not returned back to the Holy land for years now and lost some interests
c) Who have been newly invested and know nothing about the situation and would like to know about it and get energized in a ministry to serve the Christians of the Holy Land
d) Who used to know a lot and then the many news coming from here and there and the war against terrorism after 9/11 made them loose sight of what is going really on in the Holy Land
e) Who used to be active and now feel that they cannot do much as the situation seems more complex than they have ever thought.

Our Order has over 150 years of history at the service of the Christians of the Holy Land. The Order have known during its history many difficult situations that the Christians of the Holy Land have lived and the Order found itself unable to give as much they should, but found ways to continue to support the over 2000 years of Arab-Christian presence in the Holy Land. They gave with love all what they can to let these Christians continue their faith in the land of Faith.They dedicated time and energy and resources to serve these Christians that represent for us the First Christians of the world, the people who have celebrated Christmas and the Holy week for over two millennium and helped them continue to be the living stones in the land of our redemption.

Our Order has established a new justice and peace offices here and there that tells through meetings, conferences, emails and newsletter many updates about the situation in the Holy Land. Letters have been sent to members to urge them to do more and give more for the needy church of the Holy land.

What I do suggest here are JUST PERSONNAL reflections that could give some ideas to leaders or members to our beloved Order.

When WE accepted to be member at the Equestrian Order of the Knights and Ladies of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem, we took over yourself the task and ministry to help the Christians of the Holy Land, who today are facing a real decrease that would make the Holy land just a museum of "once upon a time Christians have lived there" (like Turkey, Algeria, Libya, Marocco, Tunisia ... the land of many Fathers of the first century church and the place where many monestic orders had their origin).

I call on:
1) Taking groups to visit the Holy Land.
Last month, the Franciscan custode of the Holy Land Fr. Giovanni Battistelli with Fr. Peter Vasco and Fr. Amjad Sabara the Pastor of the Church of the Nativity have  visited San Francisco. The Custode urged us to take groups to the Holy Land. He said: "Had you ever heard that a pilgrim was killed? The places of troubles are not on the way that the pilgrims take. There is no danger in Nazareth, in Caphernaum, at the Jordan River, at Tiberias, in Jerusalem, and even in Bethlehem ... as if you do not visit Las Vegas because there is some troubles in San Francisco... these two cities are too far from each other."
I think that we should start again to encourage pilgrimages. In this way we see, we touch, we tell. We help the economy. Try to use Arab-Christian guides, please if you go.

2) Sending Fact-finding groups from different cities of the Order. A fact-finding group can come back with many information that can help our Order to find out how we can help better the Land of Christ. They can speak to groups, in conferences, bring pictures and energize their own groups.

3) Creating a monthly or bimonthly lunch or dinner  or a mass or a meeting where you bring a key speaker (a fact-finding person would be recommended, I can also help as representative of the Latin Patriarchate in the USA) to speak about the situation and how we can do better in serving the Christians of the Holy land. These meetings would help the members of the Order to meet, to know each other and to work together for the best for the Christians that we are in ministry to serve.

4) Contacting the local Arab-Christians specially the Palestinians Christians. Here in San Francisco, we have a weekly Sunday mass at 11:45 AM. Meeting these Christians from time to time would help us to know about them, to hear their stories and know better the local people of the Holy land. I have for example over 600 families from Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Nazareth, Ramallah, Bir-Zeit, Taybeh ... all immigrant Christians. Every family has its own story of how they were obliged to leave their home land, the land of Christ. We do have other parishes in Los Angeles and Yonkers New York. I would be happy to send you the address if anybody is interested to visit with the pastors or the people.

5) Creating a small museum about the Holy Land in different cities. I have spoken about that years ago and I have done that myself in San Francisco and I am sure that many people can do it. If you are interested, please write me back I have the full idea how to help. This will bring the Order to create small museums in houses or portable ones that can tell the history of Christ and of Christianity in the Holy Land. Our ministry could be wonderful for schools and high schools as well for many parishes. This may energize a lot of Knights and Ladies so as to tell through pictures, materials and sites the true story of the Historic Jesus Christ, our Lord.

More information:
Please visit:
1) Al-Bushra website: www.Al-Bushra.org
2) UPDATES on the situation http://www.al-bushra.org/hedchrch/christianshl.htm
3) Christians of the Holy Land http://www.al-bushra.org/hedchrch/update2003.html
3) Articles http://www.al-bushra.org/LabibKobti/labib.htm

Fr. Labib Kobti, CHS
San Francisco
415-333-3301