In the Holy Land, a Changed Christian World

AP via Seattle PI ^ | 10/27/11 | Matti Friedman

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In this Sunday, Sept. 25, 2011 photo Filipino Christian worshippers attend mass at the Ratisbonne monastery in downtown Jerusalem. In the past two decades, the traditional Christian communities of the Holy Land have been joined by newcomers: foreign workers from dozens of different countries who provide the Israeli economy with cheap labor, asylum-seekers from Sudan, Eritrea and elsewhere in Africa who sneak across the border from Egypt, immigrants from the former Soviet Union who are part of the Jewish mainstream but are also practicing Orthodox Christians, and others. Photo: Sebastian Scheiner / AP

JAFFA, Israel (AP) — The schedules for Mass at the two Roman Catholic churches in Jaffa, on Israel's Mediterranean coast, reveal a change that has dramatically, if quietly, altered the face of Christianity in the Holy Land.

The two Masses in Arabic for the town's native Arab Christian population are outnumbered by four in English, attended mainly by Filipina caregivers. Then there are others in Spanish, for South Americans; French, for African migrants; three South Asian languages, including Konkani, spoken in the Indian district of Goa; and, for a generation of Christians raised among Israel's Jewish majority, Hebrew.

In September, a colorful celebration for Indian Catholics alone drew 2,000 people. That's twice the total number of native Catholics in the parish.

For centuries, Christianity here meant the ancient communities of Christian Arabs. They were here when Israel was created around them in 1948, and they have kept their distinct identity within the Jewish state since. The past two decades, however, have seen one of the most significant influxes of Christians into the Holy Land since the Crusades, and it has created a wholly new Christian landscape shaped by the realities of Israel.

The newcomers include guest workers from dozens of different countries who provide the economy...........