There are those who say that the date is inaccurate, and that our Lord Jesus Christ was born in another month, or another year, and that the 2000th anniversary of the Nativity was a few years ago now. I don't want to quibble with them here. The point is that, according to the Church's Calendar, within a week or two, Orthodox Christians will be celebrating 2000th anniversary of the Nativity.
But in Bethlehem, where Christ was born, the 2000th anniversary will not be marked by any special celebration. There will be even less celebration than usual. There is a war on there.
The angels gave the good news of peace to the shepherds, but 2000 years later, peace seems more unattainable than ever. No one seems to be planning any special celebrations of the bimillennium of the Nativity. There are rumours that the town will be cordoned off to exclude pilgrims from the holy sites.
Not only are pilgrims being kept out, but native Christians are leaving too. The area has seen the most dramatic decline in Christian population this century anywhere in the Near and Middle East, with the exception of Turkish Anatolia. In 1922 Christians made up 10% of the population of British Mandate Palestine. The exodus of Palestinian Christians began in 1948, during the war that followed the withdrawal of British troops. A second exodus took place after the Six Day War in 1967. Christians now make up less than a quarter of 1 percent of the population of Israel and the West Bank (Dalrymple 1997:317). Does this matter?
"All this matters very much. Without the local Christian population, the most important shrines in the Christian world will be left as museum pieces, preserved only for the curiosity of tourists. Christianity will no longer exist in the Holy Land as a living faith; a vast vacuum will exist at the heart of Christendom. As the Archbishop of Canterbury recently warned, the area 'once centre of a strong Christian presence', risks becoming 'a theme park' devoid of Christians 'within fifteen years'" (Dalrymple 1997:317).
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