Further Protests in Jordan as the Patriarchate of Jerusalem Attempts to Remove Archimandrite Chistophoros
5/10/14
Amman: On October 3, 2014 the children of the Arab Orthodox Church at the Monastery of the Virgin of the Life-Giving Spring in Dibbeen, in extremely large numbers estimated at more than one thousand people, including the elderly, men, women and children who reiterated their support for the living conscience of the Church, the Arab Archimandrite Chistophoros Atallah and denouncing the Jordanian government’s threat, through the Minster of the Interior, to carry out the decisions of the Greek Patriarch Theophilos to exile this spiritual father from the children of the Church and to exile him from his homeland.
Those gathered expressed their dissatisfaction with the reaction from the government, which stood behind the Patriarch and ignored its responsibilities to Christian citizens of Jordan and Palestine, first and foremost of which is to support the flock and its concerns and to pressure the Patriarch to halt the current tyranny and injustice over the Arab priests and flock.
The demonstrators questioned the reason for the government’s intervention into some of the Patriarchate’s decisions while it ignores the Patriarch’s commitments towards them, the non-application of any of the commitments that were made to the Ministry of the Interior, and the non-application of Law 27 of 1958.
Additionally, the demonstrators expressed that they and many children of the Orthodox Church regard this step as a dangerous precedent, especially in light of current circumstances in the region. They see it as further curtailing the role of Arab Christians in society, contrary to the policies and orientation of His Majesty King Abdallah II, may God preserve him, who strives to cement the role of Christians in Jordan and the region. Thus the voices of the demonstrators cried out to urge His Majesty the King to stand alongside them and support them.
A human chain was made around the monastery, echoing prayers and chanting “We are all Christophoros!”
Source:
Independent
