{"id":27622,"date":"2017-11-14T13:16:52","date_gmt":"2017-11-14T18:16:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/cec_protection_of_holy_sites_and_worship_places_in_europe_and_the_middle_east\/"},"modified":"2017-11-14T13:16:52","modified_gmt":"2017-11-14T18:16:52","slug":"cec_protection_of_holy_sites_and_worship_places_in_europe_and_the_middle_east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/cec_protection_of_holy_sites_and_worship_places_in_europe_and_the_middle_east\/","title":{"rendered":"CEC: Protection of Holy Sites and Worship Places in Europe and the Middle East"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CEC_logo.jpg\"In the run up to the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018, European churches are urging the European institutions to increase their efforts to ensure respect and protection of places of worship and holy sites, both in the EU law and in the Common Foreign and Security Policy.<\/p>\n

These church leaders were participants of a conference organised by the Conference or European Churches and the Church of Cyprus, in Nicosia, Cyprus, from 9-10 November.<\/p>\n

The forty participants of the conference emphasised that several gaps in the international legal regime, governing such sites, need to be filled, in particular a common definition and legal remedies. To buy, build, own, maintain, restore and use such religious places are part and parcel of the fundamental right to Freedom of Religion or Belief, they said.<\/p>\n

The conference explored different legal, political and cultural contexts of the theme. This included Western Europe, with its increasingly secular setting, as well as regions where religious sites have been politicized in conflict situations, such as in Kosovo (UNSCR 1244\/1999), in the divided Cyprus, in Ukraine, in Syria and in the City of Jerusalem<\/a>, which holds special significance to Jews, Christians and Muslims alike.<\/p>\n

For Cyprus, His Beatitude Archbishop Chrysostomos II of Nova Justiniana and All Cyprus spoke about the need of de facto protection of the churches in Cyprus. Religious monuments in the country are not under the effective control of the Republic of Cyprus and are often vandalized with the Turkish Cypriot side doing little to prevent that. Legal owners are also often denied access to and prevented from worshiping at their holy sites. \u201cUsing the right of access to places of worship for political ends is not conducive to dialogue,\u201d said Cyprus\u2019 Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides.<\/p>\n

Speaking about the Holy Land, His Beatitude Theophilos III, Patriarch of Jerusalem and all Palestine, said that over the last several months, a new level of threat has emerged to the stability of Jerusalem as a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious society of which the diverse holy sites are concrete evidence, and that the churches have become increasingly concerned about their properties.<\/p>\n

For Syria, Bishop Armash Nalbandian, Primate of the Armenian Diocese of Damascus, talked about the great suffering his community that has lived through during the civil war. He emphasized the desire to return the country to relative harmony between different faiths that existed before the conflict.<\/p>\n

Fr Sava Janjic, Abbot of De\u010dani Monastery in Kosovo (UNSCR 1244\/1999), demanded that \u201cpolitical leaders in the Balkans should demonstrate more commitment to the protection of cultural and religious heritage of vulnerable communities and make more efforts to prevent further destruction of holy sites\u201d.<\/p>\n

The moderator of CEC Thematic Reference Group on Human Rights, Rev. Dr G\u00f6ran Gunner, stated that \u201cthe destruction of a place of worship often deeply affects the identity of a religious person, who wants the site to be preserved for the present and future generations with dignity, integrity and respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

The participants of the conference have adopted a c<\/em>ommuniqu\u00e9, please click here to read that.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the run up to the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018, European churches are urging the European institutions to increase their efforts to ensure respect and protection of places of worship and holy sites, both in the EU law … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20010,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false},"categories":[],"topic":[20237],"region":[20242,20025,20022,20031],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCEC: Protection of Holy Sites and Worship Places in Europe and the Middle East - Global Ministries<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/cec_protection_of_holy_sites_and_worship_places_in_europe_and_the_middle_east\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CEC: Protection of Holy Sites and Worship Places in Europe and the Middle East - Global Ministries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the run up to the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018, European churches are urging the European institutions to increase their efforts to ensure respect and protection of places of worship and holy sites, both in the EU law … Read more\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/cec_protection_of_holy_sites_and_worship_places_in_europe_and_the_middle_east\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Global Ministries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-11-14T18:16:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Middle East & Europe - Global Ministries\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Middle East & Europe - Global Ministries\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/cec_protection_of_holy_sites_and_worship_places_in_europe_and_the_middle_east\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/cec_protection_of_holy_sites_and_worship_places_in_europe_and_the_middle_east\/\",\"name\":\"CEC: Protection of Holy Sites and Worship Places in Europe and the Middle East - Global Ministries\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-11-14T18:16:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-11-14T18:16:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/#\/schema\/person\/446b6f8492d6e1e8a620fbef58ed876f\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/cec_protection_of_holy_sites_and_worship_places_in_europe_and_the_middle_east\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/cec_protection_of_holy_sites_and_worship_places_in_europe_and_the_middle_east\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/cec_protection_of_holy_sites_and_worship_places_in_europe_and_the_middle_east\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"CEC: Protection of Holy Sites and Worship Places in Europe and the Middle East\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/\",\"name\":\"Global Ministries\",\"description\":\"Global Ministries is a common missional witness of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ. 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