Religious Leaders Arrive in Bethlehem for Three-day Pilgrimage

The heads of the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches in England have arrived in Bethlehem for a three-day Christmas pilgrimage to the West Bank town.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, Archbishop of Westminster and leader of the Catholic church in England and Wales, are leading prayers for the beleaguered town, which is separated from nearby Jerusalem by the Israeli "security barrier".

Dr Williams has warned in the past of an exodus of Christians from Bethlehem, which has evolved from a majority Christian to a majority Muslim town in the past 50 years. Its population is around 40,000.

Before leaving for Israel, Dr Williams said that the purpose of the trip was to "be alongside people, Christians, Jews and Muslims, whose lives have been wrecked in different ways by terrorism and by the sense that they're hated and feared by each other.

"We'll be with people who are really desperate to find some sort of hope, some way out of the cycle of violence and insecurity."

In his Christmas address last year, Cardinal O'Connor declared that the Christ child would be weeping for the town of his birth as it was "steadily strangled".

The two men will take part in an ecumenical service at the Grotto of the Nativity, which is believed by Christians to represent the place of the birth of the saviour, Jesus Christ.

They are accompanied by Bishop Nathan Hovhannisian, Primate of the Armenian Church of Great Britain, and the Rev David Coffey, Moderator of the Free Churches.

The leaders have called for prayers for the struggling town, where Christians have suffered economic hardship and anxiety about their homes and their security. The town's Roman Catholic mayor, Victor Batarseh, has described the security barrier as transforming Bethlehem into a "large prison", with visitors forced to pass through a 30ft wall and negotiate their way past armed soldiers and concrete barriers.

The visit comes after Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church in St Ives, Cambridgeshire, announced that it was setting up a replica of the barrier instead of a traditional Nativity scene this year.

The church is twinned with a Catholic parish in the village of Aboud on the West Bank, and exchange trips have been made between the two communities.

The church has said it has put together an exhibition about the effects of the barrier on Palestinian people living nearby. It is also raising funds for the people of Bethlehem.

Israeli officials claim half of the suicide bombers which killed Israelis in 2004 have come from Bethlehem.

Dr Williams - who is recovering from having a cyst on his elbow removed earlier this month - spoke on Terry Wogan's Radio 2 programme about the trip before leaving.

He said: "Like most people, I guess, when I hear the name 'Bethlehem' I think warm and comforting thoughts. It's somehow a warm and comforting word.

"And most people, of my generation, anyway, think of 'Oh little town of Bethlehem, How still we see thee lie'...

"And what will we see when we get there this week?

"We'll see what every visitor sees, what many who've never been there would love to see: a place made holy, made warm, you could say, by centuries of prayer and thanksgiving.

"And I know that we'll have kindness and welcome from the local people and a chance to worship in the great ancient church of the Nativity.

"Some of it's going to be a lot harder, though. We're visiting Christians who suffer terrible economic hardship and daily anxiety about their homes and their security."

Israel began to build its security barrier - which is a wall in some places, a fence in others - along its border with the West Bank in 2002, in order to deter Palestinian suicide bombers from entering Israel.

Palestinians and other critics claim that the barrier - which traps significant sections of Palestinian land on the Israeli side in many places - is also an attempt to gain territory and set de facto borders without negotiating an agreement.