Epilogue

The Church of Jerusalem is the only self sprouted and indigenous Church in the Holy Land and, being Orthodox, has preserved the Orthodox Faith of the Apostles and Church Fathers, which has been maintained unaltered through the ages. The rest of the Christian confessions and communities, having their ultimate reporting to their national or centralized ecclesiastic administrations outside of the Holy Land, which they represent in the Holy Land, obviously lack the important role that is played by the Jerusalem Church under the guidance of the Order of the Industrious Ones, namely the Hagiotaphitic Brotherhood (Brotherhood of the Sepulchre). The Greek character of the Jerusalem Church, beyond its immediate historic reference to the origin of the first Christians in Palestine, and because it inspires the Patriarchate of Holy Jerusalem with the universality of the Greek Orthodox, spiritual and Christocentric culture of the Holy Fathers, rises above narrow national ties, and therefore, assures both the universality and accessibility of the Most Holy Shrines to all.

The war clashes in the area of the Middle East during the last few years and the consequent problems led to the steady debilitation of the Christian population at the Holy Land, which still continues. The Jerusalem Church, despite these, adheres to its mission in guiding its flock in salvific nomads and in maintaining the liturgical nature of the Shrines by which the Truth seeking souls, of locals and pilgrims find their Good Shepherd, there where He through the Cross and Resurrection “worked salvation on earth” (Ps 73: 12).