Letter from the President

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Greetings. The Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation (HCEF) invites you to join us in our efforts to preserve the Mother Church and her living stones, the indigenous Christians of the Holy Land.

Social, economic and political concerns threaten the continued Christian presence in the Holy Land. Closures imposed on the community limit movement between Palestinian towns, making the transport of goods and travel difficult. Food staples are scarce. Homes and land are often confiscated. Faced with the burden of finding work in a crippled economy and fearing for the safety of their loved ones, many Christian families are forced by circumstance to emigrate. The Christian population of the Holy Land, the living roots of the faith, has been reduced to a mere 2%, down from 18% in 1948.

HCEF is a nonprofit organization that works to preserve the Christian presence in the Holy Land by providing financial, moral and spiritual support to the Christian community. We seek to replace despair with hope, fear with security and humiliation with human dignity. The foundation has developed a number of outreach programs to foster solidarity between Western and Holy Land Christians and provide relief in difficult conditions through the Holy Land Christian Support Network (HCSN).

You will find information on the foundation and its programs here. We hope that our message will resonate with you and inspire you to contact us to discuss the ways in which we could work together to sustain the Christian presence in the Holy Land and preserve our common Christian heritage.

In Christ,

Rateb Y. Rabie, KCHS
President/CEO
Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation