The history of the Orthodox Church of the Holy Land is part and parcel of the history of the Holy Land. Being the oldest and the first Christian establishment on the very first day of the church’s institution in Jerusalem. After the end of the Byzantine rule in the Holy Land, Patriarch Sophronios (638 a.d.) was the Patriarch who received Caliph Omar’s covenant granting the Orthodox Church all the rights and privileges in churches, monasteries, and shrines throughout the Holy Land.

Being the oldest Christian establishment in the Holy Land, the Orthodox Patriarchate is fully aware of its role and responsibility in preserving holy places for Christianity and preserving the Christian living witness in the Holy Land representing this kind of real and genuine Middle Eastern Christian identity in the Holy Land. It has been persecuted through the last two thousand years and has seen many ups and downs in its long history.