Dear brothers and sisters in Christ 
I t is a pleasure for me to come from Galilee, the home land of Jesus to share with you my experience and paradoxical life. 
My name is Jacoub Kassabry and I am from Haifa, Israel.I am an Israeli but not a Jew.I am an Arab but not a Muslim.I am a christian,that is I am a minority within a minority. If I say I am a christian, it is not the end of the story. The christians in the Holy Land are divided into different classical churches ( greek melkite catholic, greek orthodox, maronite, catholic). The division is still continuing because by the various protestant and evangelical movements. If this is not complex enough, I can tell you that during the last 10 years,more than 400,000 christian immigrants from the late Soviet Union reach Israel with an official declaration that they are Jews.I feel like another Galilean man, who did not find before 2000 years, a place where he can rest his head. 
I am married to Duah and a father of two children, Yara and Michel. Yara is 4 years old and Michel is 3. In the Church, I serve the Lord by being in charge of the Youth Fellowship in the Parish for the last 20 years.I also form part of the Pastoral Assembly. It is important to remember that this is a very new idea in the Latin Church in Haifa and which is the fruit of the General Pastoral Plan.Before this period in my life, I felt a hurtful emptiness because of the social-political conflict. Till then, I could not accept the idea of being handicapped and without possibilities to change things for the better. But, step by step, with the help of the Lord,I got the opportunity to involve myself in spiritual activities within the Church and to give more than to receive. This was a period in my life which helped my faith and spiritual life to grow within a short time. 

I live in Haifa City, a city on the Mediterraen. Mount Carmel is a part of it. The population of Haifa is 400,000. 350,000 of these are Jewish, 25,000 christians and 22,000 Muslems. Haifa is not mentioned in the Holy Scripture, but Mount Carmel is mentioned several times, especially in connection with the Prophet Elias . I Kings,18. He is the intercessor of Haifa and the famous church, that has been built over his cave on the top of Mount Carmel, is the largest and most beautiful church in Haifa.It is known as Stella Maris Church, that is our Lady Star of the Sea. She is the protectress of all Galilee. 

The Different Groups 
It is important to mention that in the different denomination there are vary groups connected with thier own church or parish for exampel , the apostolic marounite movement , charismatic catholic group , the catholic youth meeting , the Holy Saturday Group in the latin church which I belong to. 

The Pastoral Synod 
The pastoral synod started in the early ninties. Its aim was to make catholic communities feel closer to the Church. Patriarch Michel Sabbah is the Patriarch responsible for the Church in Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Cyprus. He is helped by the Assembly of the Catholic Ordinaries in the Holy Land. 
We in Haifa took part in a reevangelization mission and some of us even went outside Haifa. As for me, I went to a village in West Galilee,called Mazraa, a very small village where the majority of the population is Muslim(97%), while only 3% are christian,if not less than that. I would like to share with you a trmendous experience I had there with an 80 year old lady, callad Am Yousef. AY used to participate in our weekly Bible study metings which covered passages from the bible connected with the themes of the Synod.One of the themes studied was the difference between personal faith and traditional faith. AY used to take part in all our meetings,which were held in her house. AY was once a member of the Jehovah Witnesses Group but she left the group a long time ago with no return. We found her knowledge of the Scriptures very helpful. She used to participate actively in the Holy Mass but did not go to communion. This made me feel very sad and I told her about it but nothing changed. At Christmastime, when we had the usual meeting in her house, I asked the Lord for a special gift. During the meeting I could notice a happy expression in her eyes. When I remarked about it, she told me that during the Christmas holidays she had been to Jerusalem and Bethlehem and there she went to communion. She was as happy as ever when she spoke about it and on my part I felt that I had received a special gift for Christmas. A year ago,AY passed away and she is now in heaven with the Lord. This is one experience of many others in our ministry with so many people who changed their lives as a result of the Synod. 

My background and personal experience and also the case of AY, show us that the Church should be present in the everyday lives of individuals and in society. It should understand the needs of society, family conflicts and the link between the church and society andlay christians. The General Pastoral Plan has had the courage to understand that the Church should renew itself by believing in Christ, participation within the Church and witnessing in society.The implimentation of the vision should not only be clerical but should involve lay people, as the holy and regal people. Lay people, who make up 99.9% of the Body of Christ, are ignored. They need guidance to be able to take up responsibilities. Guidance means a lot of things.The Church today has started to give lay people their responsibilities but to carry out this mission they need religious, pastoraland sociological formation, with a deep understanding of past and present history with a foresight of the future. This entails a strategic pastoral plan for several years broken down year by year. This will need a number of resources: teachers, training centres audio visual equipment and printing facilities and above all financial resources as this cannot depend entirely on voluntary work. Active lay people have families to support and have to think of their careers and their future. 
I can give more detail to anyone who is interested later. 
I wish more people get to know about what is going on in the Holy Land from day to day. Christianity saw its beginning 2000 years ago. Since then we have had long periods of persecutions and emarginalization. Now we are facing a very dreadful situation namely CHRISTIAN EMIGRATION which may mean the dead end of christianity. Within a few years there will be no single christian left in the Land of Jesus. This is my SOS 
Itis time for the whole world to know what my fellow countrymen are going through in my beloved and holy country. 
Thank you for your patience to listen to me.

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III European-Mediterranean Continental Meeting
FOR A FRATERNAL EUROPE. The contribution of Catholic Action •Sarajevo, September 3rd-7th 2003