Expressions of Hope Mark Christmas Rites

Thousands of pilgrims from around the world crowded into the Church of the Nativity on Christmas Day to sing and pray in a medley of languages at the site where Jesus was born.

Choir music echoed through the church here as it did in churches throughout the world as Christians and even non-Christian peoples celebrated the birth of Christ as a day of peace and good will.

Christmas Day comments ranged from Queen Elizabeth’s hopeful plea to Britons to make some “good news” to Philippine Cardinal Jaime L. Sin’s bleak assessment of his country’s plight.

Mass was conducted nonstop in the grotto beneath the Church of the Nativity where many pilgrims waited in line for as long as 30 minutes to touch the 14-point silver star marking the spot where the Virgin Mary is believed to have given birth to Jesus.

They Don’t Mind Delay

Most pilgrims, waiting under clear skies, did not seem to mind the delay. Joseph Wood, a 26-year-old pilot from Nashville, Tenn., said Christmas in Bethlehem is an experience unlike any other.

“There is a special atmosphere, seeing places of biblical significance, “ Wood said.

Judy Bensimhon, a 38-year-old New Yorker, said, “I think I’m really privileged to be here.”

Christmas was no holiday for most of the 15,000 Christian residents of this Palestinian town in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The rest of the town’s 50,000 people are Muslims.

“Most Christians in Bethlehem depend on tourism so we have to work on Christmas,” said Anwar Saca, 40, who owns one of the area’s largest souvenir stores. Saca said he worked until 1 a.m. Christmas morning and would do most of his celebrating after his shop closed Wednesday night.

Despite the hard work, Saca, a Roman Catholic, said he never tires of Bethlehem’s holiday celebrations. “People are coming from around the world. You feel these are very special days in Bethlehem,” he said.

Subdued Celebrations

Christmas Day celebrations were subdued in contrast to the often-boisterous holiday-making of Christmas Eve.

Israel radio said police arrested one pickpocket and booked 40 people for drunken behavior.

Security appeared more relaxed Wednesday, compared to Tuesday night, when 350 Israeli soldiers guarded Manger Square. On Christmas Day, no Israeli soldiers were visible, and Bethlehem’s Arab police stayed away as well.

Some shop owners complained that this year’s decrease in tourism hurt their sales. Olive wood carvings and mother-of-pearl jewelry, specialties in Bethlehem, remained mostly on the shelves.

“We closed at 7 o’clock last night, the earliest ever on Christmas Eve. We didn’t even do $10 of business. There are just no tourists,” said Epiphany Tabush, the 84-year-old owner of the Nativity Store.

Christmas Eve celebrations included a midnight Mass presided over by the Roman Catholic patriarch of Jerusalem, Msgr. Giacomo Guiseppe Beltritti.

Services in the Field

About 100 Christian pilgrims gathered Christmas Eve outside Bethlehem for both Protestant and Roman Catholic services in Shepherds Field, where according to the Bible, angels told shepherds of Jesus’ birth.

“It looks like the shepherds are well armed against the wolves.” Tom Jacks of London said as he looked at the good number of Israeli guards watching over the services.

“Peace seems a little tenuous,” said Bill Sanders, a teacher from Philadelphia. “The presence of the occupation army is evident.”

The Rev. John L. Peterson, a Baptist minister, led prayers in Arabic, English and Swedish.

“Today, as it was then, there is a hope for peace. That is what this night is all about,” Peterson said.

Among the Americans present were sailors from the U.S. 6th Fleet.

Forty-four servicemen came from their ships docked in Haifa, Israel, to sing carols and celebrate Mass in a small Roman Catholic church near Shepherds Field, which was lit by oil lamps and filled to capacity with about 100 pilgrims.

Telephone Lines Jammed

The servicemen said they had tied up the ship-to-shore telephone lines with holiday calls. “You know in your heart it’s Christmastime, so your thoughts go to home and you hope everything is going fine,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Kevin Pusch, 26, of Vernon, Conn., from the frigate Paul.

“First thing I’ll do when I get back to the ship is call my brother. He’s a minister in Alberta, Canada, and I should be able to talk with him right before he delivers his sermon,” said Cmdr. Larry Jilhan, 41, of San Diego, who is also assigned to the Paul.

Although the sailors had a special Christmas Day turkey dinner aboard ship, many said their brief Christmas Eve visit to Shepherds Field was the highlight of their holiday.

Wednesday’s Christmas was the first of three observed in the Holy Land. The Greek Orthodox Church celebrates the holiday Jan. 6, and the Armenian Orthodox Christmas is Jan. 18.

In many other parts of the world, however, the holiday was celebrated in a less festive manner.

Christmas in Romania, one of the poorest countries in Europe, means standing in line for bread and cooking in the middle of the night when fuel is available.

But with 80% of the people aligned to the Orthodox church and about 6% Roman Catholics, the spirit of a religious festival still pervades. Christmas Eve and Christmas are normal working days for Romanians, although people fill the churches for evening services.

Signs wishing La Multi Ani (Happy New Year), tinsel and an occasional string of colored lights enliven otherwise drab shop windows along Bucharest’s Boulevard Magheru for the week of “Cadouri,” or presents.

In Moscow, Christmas Day passed with people scurrying to work and trying to beat the lines at shops during lunch hour. Only diplomats, journalists and businessmen held the traditional Christmas parties while their Soviet counterparts worked a normal eight-hour day.

The official Soviet news agency Tass noted that it was Christmas Day but only in remarking about a violent death in West Germany.

“Murder on Christmas Day,” said the headline about the hit-and-run death of a Turkish student in Hamburg.

Soviet citizens will have their celebration next week on New Year’s Eve, the time when Grandfather Frost and his helper Snow Maiden bring gifts to children who have been good. Members of the Russian Orthodox Church also celebrate Christmas at the end of the first week in January.

In the Philippines, Cardinal Sin, the outspoken archbishop of Manila, delivered a grim holiday message in Asia’s only Christian country, saying Filipinos “face the bleakest Christmas in living memory.”

“Our people, indeed, are a nation in travail, suffering all kinds of affliction,” he said. “Acts of injustice continue to blight the national soul,” Sin said in apparent reference to repressive tactics sponsored by the regime of President Ferdinand E. Marcos.

Expressions of hope and good will were offered by leaders in other parts of the world.

Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi issued a Christmas statement in New Delhi offering “greetings and good wishes to all.”

Although Christians make up less than 3% of the population of the mainly Hindu nation, the day is a national holiday in India, observed by people of all religions.

Special Christmas bazaars in the major cities sell cards, candles, Christmas stars and trees, and families gather to feast.

In a broadcast from Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth made a Christmas Day appeal to Britons and the people of other Commonwealth countries to make some “good news” in 1986.

“Looking at the morning newspapers . . . it’s only too easy to conclude that nothing is going right in the world,” she said in her annual televised message.

But, she said, Christmas is a time “to remember that there are a great many people trying to make the world a better place, even though their efforts may go unrecognized.”

“We should never forget our obligation to make our own individual contribution, however small, towards the sum of human goodness.”