Their lives are threatened. Their churches have been bombed. Their numbers are shrinking as many flee Iraq seeking safety elsewhere. And their involvement in the recent elections has mostly been overlooked in the world press.

In spite of this, some Iraqi Christians, who make up about 3 percent of the population, are reaching out and ministering to their communities. New churches have started, Christian bookstores have opened, and an Iraqi pastor has created for SAT-7 what is believed to be the first Christian satellite TV show made by an Iraqi, for Iraqis.

Jennifer Sheran, CrossWalk

As'ad Halul, a garage owner from the Galilee Christian village of Gush Halav (Jish), doesn't understand what people want from him. Two years ago, he decided to stop paying rent for the building which housed his garage, but instead bought land in the village to build a bigger repair shop there.

What turns out later is that the land belongs to the Jewish National Fund, and therefore, cannot be allocated "to anyone who is not Jewish.

This is one of the reasons why Attorney General Menachem Mazuz decided yesterday that all land managed by the Israel Lands Administration, including land owned by the Jewish National Fund, will be marketed without discrimination or limits including to non-Jews.

Haaretz, January 27, 2005

Baghdad, Iraq ? The 66-year-old Syrian Catholic archbishop snatched from the streets of Mosul on Monday was freed Tuesday, without the payment of any ransom, the Vatican said.

Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa, the head of the archdiocese in Mosul, a crime-ridden city in northern Iraq, was walking in front of his church when a group of insurgents pushed him into a car at gunpoint on Monday, several members of Mosul's large Christian community said.

The Day, New London, CT, Jan 19, 2005

Half a million dollars in donations raised by American Christian Evangelical supporters of Israel for Jerusalem's needy has been held up for the past year and a half due to a long-running feud between the head of the charity and the Jerusalem Municipality over a photo-op with the mayor, the city and the organization said Tuesday.

Etgar Lefkovitz, the Jerusalem Post, Jan 11, 2004

It was one of those rare hours of joy for some two thousand Christians, mainly from Catholic churches coming from different towns and villages in Galilee to come together to attend the first ceremony in the new "Domus Galilaeae" International Center on the top of the mount of Beatitude near the Sea of Galilee in the north of Israel.

Korazim, Special For Come and See, Jan 12, 2004

Bishop William Skylstad, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, called the Palestinian election which was held on 9 January a "historic day" for the Palestinians.

"The elections might mark a new day for people who are looking toward the future with hope," said Bishop Skylstad, who was in Jerusalem at the invitation of the bishops in the Holy Land for an annual meeting on the problems faced by the region's Christians.

Catholic News Service, Jan 10, 2005

The Vatican will present the works of Moses Maimonides, one of the most influential figures in modern Jewish thought to Israel for scholarly study. With this gesture, the Vatican hopes to continue to bridge the divide between Jews and Christians worldwide.

The loaning of the manuscripts is also viewed as an offering to resolve other political and social disagreements in Israel, including Hebrew University's partial use of a convent since 1948 that the Vatican wants back, and property tax exemptions for religious institutions.

Catholic News Agency, Jan 10, 2005

Former US President Jimmy Carter found time in his trip to the Middle East to drive north to Nazareth, Saturday afternoon, the 8th of January to visit a full-scale replica of a first century village in Nazareth called ?Nazareth Village?.

President Carter and wife Rosalynn have been honorary chairs for Nazareth Village since the inception of the idea in 1997 - but this was the first time Carter actually visited the site.

Special for Come and See, Jan 11, 2005

Part of the remains of the Siloam Pool - which played a significant role in one of Jesus' miracles as recorded in the Bible's Gospel of John - have been uncovered by archaeologists in Jerusalem.

Just prior to Christmas 2004, spokesmen for Israel's Antiquities Authority announced they were slowly digging out the pool "where water still runs," says a published report by Associated Press.

by Bible Network News