BETHLEHEM, Saturday, January 19, 2017 (WAFA) – The Armenian community in Palestine celebrated Christmas Eve in Bethlehem on Friday, highlighted with the arrival of the procession of the Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem Archbishop Nourhan Manougian at noon to the Nativity Church in Bethlehem coming from Jerusalem.

Priests, Deacons and Seminarians followed the Patriarch’s car in the procession from the Armenian Convent at Jaffa Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem in the morning to Bethlehem.

It stopped in the way at Mar Elias Monastery where it was welcomed by the Deputy Mayor of Bethlehem, the Mayors of Beit Jala and Beit Sahour along with other local officials and notables of the Armenian community before it continued to Bethlehem where it was received at Manger Square outside the Church of Nativity by the scouts movement and officials including the governor or Bethlehem Kamel Hmeid, Tourism Minister Rola Maayaa and Bethlehem Mayor Anton Salman, among others.

At midnight, Manougian lead the Midnight Mass at the Grotto of the Nativity, attended by Deputy Prime Minister Ziad Abu Amr representing President Mahmoud Abbas.

Speaking in the Midnight sermon, Archbishop Manougian said: "To you, President Mahmoud Abbas, we say that your work has proved your message. History will record that you are the trusted guardian of the people whose wounds are still bleeding and the road of its pain for achieving freedom and peace continues. We are aware of the seriousness and difficulty of this stage the Palestinian people are going through. Pressures are high and the challenged are many. The options are almost unavailable. But we are confident in your wisdom, your steadfastness, your love for your people and the extent of your faith in peace."

The Armenian Christmas is the last one celebrated in the Holy Land, after the Latin Church on December 25, the Orthodox Church on January 7 and then the Armenians, who mark Christmas only in Bethlehem, on December 19.

M.K.