AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND (ANS) -- Christian pilgrims visiting the Holy Land often overlook the presence of local Christians, who have worshipped at the holy places since Christianity began, according to the director of a new website on the Holy Land.

A Coptic Orthodox Eucharist service in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem

“The very first Christians were residents of Palestine who recognized Jesus as their Messiah and followed him,” says New Zealand-based Pat McCarthy, who recently launched the Seetheholyland.net website (www.seetheholyland.net). “After His Resurrection they became the original members of the Christian Church.

“Descendants of these same people still live in the villages of Israel, the Palestinian Territories and Jordan. Their ancestors heard Jesus preach, saw him heal the sick, and perhaps were among the 5,000 miraculously fed on loaves and fishes. Bible history happened in their back yard.

Not everyone realizes this, McCarthy says. He cites the experience of an Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem and the Middle East during an overseas visit.

A group of the Greek Orthodox community, the largest Christian church in the Holy Land, leaving the Old City of Jerusalem

A journalist, perhaps assuming that Christianity was brought to the East by Western missionaries, asked him: “How long have you been a Christian?” The bishop, a Palestinian, replied: “My family has been Christian since the day Jesus Christ visited our village.”

McCarthy says Arabic is the language of the Holy Land's indigenous Christians and the heritage of these “Living Stones,” as they are often called, predates the quarried stones of holy sites and shrines.

“These Christians are in Jerusalem, in Bethlehem, in Galilee and in Gaza. They tend olive trees, trade in the souks, teach in colleges, subsist in refugee camps,” he says.

McCarthy says that “visiting the holy places without acknowledging the Christians who have lived and worshipped there from the time of the first apostles is disappointing for these people, who struggle for religious identity in a predominantly Judeo-Muslim world.”

He adds, “The daily trials of economic hardship, political uncertainty, and religious and ethnic discrimination have led many Palestinian Christians to emigrate, so that now they make up less than 2% of the population of Israel and the Palestinian Territories.”

McCarthy told the ASSIST News Service (ANS) that the Christian churches of the Holy Land “constitute a rich mosaic of languages, liturgies, national identities and clerical dress, with worship services more elaborate and prolonged than in the West.”

The www.Seetheholyland.net website has information on how visitors to the Holy Land can contact local Christian communities and suggestions for offering them solidarity and encouragement.

Dan Wooding, 69, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for 46 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS). He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly “Front Page Radio” show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding also a regular contributor to The Weekend Stand on the Crawford Broadcasting Network, and a host for His Channel Live, which is carried via the Internet to some 192 countries. He is the author of some 44 books. Two of the latest include his autobiography, “From Tabloid to Truth”, which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, press this link. Wooding, who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, has also recently released his first novel “Red Dagger” which is available here