c. 2000 Religion News Service
JERUSALEM _ An agreement to temporarily divide a disputed Russian Orthodox church property in Jericho between rival “red” and “white” church organizations still locked in Cold War-era animosities appears to be in the works, a leading nun involved in the dispute said Thursday (Feb. 10).
The nun, Sister Maria Stephanopoulos, sister of former White House press spokesman George Stephanopoulos, has been holed up on the church grounds for the past month together with another American-born nun, to prevent a takeover of the property by the so-called red, or Moscow-based, Russian Orthodox Church.
“Things are looking positive. It looks like the Palestinians are trying to organize this agreement. I feel fairly confident that in the next three or four days things will be set up so that our people will have free access,” said Sister Maria in a phone interview with Religion News Service.
In a swift and sudden operation, Palestinian Authority security police last month evicted five white Russian monks and staff people _ a branch of the church that broke with Moscow at the time of the Russian Revolution _ from the premises and turned the keys over to the red Russian church community.
The surprise move was apparently intended as a reward to an old political ally, Russia, following a Christmastime visit by Moscow Patriarch Alexii II to Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.
But the heavy-handed police maneuver generated a backlash of criticism from U.S. Orthodox communities affiliated with the New York-based Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR).
Stephanopoulos’ involvement, meanwhile, helped trigger the intervention of a number of prominent U.S. politicians and diplomats. The Palestinian involvement in the lingering Cold War-era church animosities has proven deeply embarrassing to Palestinian officials.
According to the tentative agreement, mediated by U.S. consular officials here over the past several days, the church property is now to be divided between the two rival church organizations along an existing wall that runs through the property pending a full court review of the ownership dispute.
In the meantime, monks affiliated with the Moscow-based Russian Orthodox church will reside in the 19th century pilgrims’ hospice on one side of the monastery grounds, while the ROCOR monks on the other side will occupy a two-room modular unit. A chapel with mosaics dating back to the sixth century _ the central feature of the pilgrims’ way station _ is to be closed pending the court review of the ownership case, said Sister Maria.
“It was understood that this is only temporary,” she said. “We have been living in this area for 70 years, and we want this issue to go to court. We want a Palestinian court to say who these properties belong to, with no more games.”
In 1997, the Palestinian Authority evicted white Russian monks from the grounds of another church property in Hebron, and ROCOR church officials are concerned its few remaining institutions in the West Bank and East Jerusalem could be similarly threatened if ownership claims aren’t established in court. Russian Orthodox churches inside pre-1967 Israel were turned over to the red Russian church in 1949. That move, 50 years ago, was also a politically motivated gesture rewarding Moscow for being the first country to recognize the new Jewish state.
Sister Maria said that over the past 24 hours, the promised pre-fab rooms with bathroom facilities and a kitchenette were installed on the church grounds. Palestinian workmen were painting the unit and hooking up the electricity.
“For a month we have been living without any real facilities except a water tap from the fruit orchards,” said the 40-year-old nun, adding wryly, “I guess it is all part of the monastic life.”
Sister Maria said she was hopeful once church officials were given free access to their side of the property via a second gate, the two nuns could leave the site and return to their regular duties. She heads a girls’ boarding school in the West Bank Jerusalem suburb of Bethany. The nuns are likely to be replaced by monks carrying American passports, in the event trouble flares again.
The involvement of the two American-born nuns, one named Stephanopoulos, stimulated widespread interest in what had originally been an obscure church dispute.
Along with her well-known brother, Sister Maria boasts a prominent cleric-father, the Rev. Robert Stephanopoulos, dean of Holy Trinity Cathedral in New York, the headquarters parish of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. Sister Maria’s mother, Nikki, is a public affairs officer for the archdiocese. Sister Maria, whose birth name is Anastasia, was raised in the Greek Orthodox Church but joined Russian Orthodoxy as a young adult because of its emphasis on monastic life.
Since the dispute flared, a number of prominent U.S. politicians have taken up the church’s cause.
Meanwhile, the controversy echoed in Russia as well, generating sharp responses from the Moscow patriarch. Alexii was quoted by the Russian Itar-Tass News Agency as saying the dispute was instigated by the United States to preserve the rift in the two churches that has existed since the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.
“The U.S. authorities and the American special services will never allow” the unification of the two churches, the patriarch was quoted as saying.
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