To the Readers

Beloved in the Lord Children of Our Mediocrity .

The Heritage, on one hand, of the Most Sacred Shrines, the visible evidence of the on earth presence in flesh and salvific Economy of the Son and Word of God, of our Lord Jesus Christ, and, on the other hand, the Ecclesiastic Community at the Holy Land, the continuation of the ancient Judeo-Christian Community, the Church of Jerusalem and of Palestine, are the pride of our Patriarchate, of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, pride which the Hagiotaphitic Brotherhood (Brotherhood of the Sepulchre) and the indigenous flock have guarded for many centuries, with sacrifices of blood, ever pouring sweat and untold amounts of money.

This Heritage of the Holy Lands of Grace which fills the pilgrims who flock from the ends of the world, with the holy spiritual springs of contrition, repentance, consciousness and love of Christ, pouring of the Holy Spirit, from the deified Flesh of Christ, this Heritage is deservedly presented to people by the Church of Jerusalem, in every way and with full vigour, towards sanctification and salvation. The Church of Jerusalem could not find more suitable a way towards this end than the presentation in the World Wide Web, with which also it hopes not only to make the faithful knowledgeable of her, in the most part, unknown history and her various struggles in the Holy Land, and sanctify the senses of the spectators and the rational aspect of their soul through the vision of the Holy Shrines and the narratives about them, but also to facilitate the arrival of pilgrims to the Holy Land and of all those willing to struggle together and help the Church of Jerusalem.

This web-site, fruit of unselfish effort and pious toil of friends and contributors of the Most Holy Sepulchre, the first official web-site of the Church of Jerusalem, will continuously be enriched, with the Help of God, with information concerning every sector of our ecclesiastic life. The “aerial” electromagnetic data of contemporary technology, though inferior to the tangible writing with ink and paper, is capable however to likewise constitute a carrier of salvific concepts that lead to the uncreated deliverance in Christ.

Mote it be to all, the Grace and Tradition of the Holy Lands, the treasure of the Hagiotaphites, a steady guide of the Orthodox Faith and Life. According to the early Jerusalemite Monks, God's Holy City of Jerusalem is “the eye and beacon of the whole world, having received the word of the Gospel, given that according to the prophetic saying, that from Sion the law shall come out, and the word of the Lord shall come out of Jerusalem” and her inhabitants are “as if they touch the truth every day with their own hands through these Venerable Landmarks, in which the mystery of the incarnation of the great God our Saviour was performed”. Invoking the grace of these Venerable Lands on all of you, we bestow on you Our Paternal wishes and Patriarchal blessings and remain.

In the Holy City of Jerusalem in the month of May, of the Saviour's year 2oo7.
Ardently blesser in the Lord

Theophilos ΙΙΙ
Patriarch of Jerusalem.