Mission Statement

We work to rebuild hope and strengthen the Christian presence in the Holy Land.

Vision Statement

Holylands Arts works so Christian families can stay in the Holy Land, and so families in the United States can know their story and support their work.

Doctrinal Statement

We believe that:

1. The Holy Scriptures are the inspired Word of God. Together with Sacred Tradition (the living transmission of the apostolic faith in the life, worship, and teaching of the Church), they constitute the supreme rule of faith, interpreted within the Church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

2. The Holy Trinity is three distinct and co-eternal Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—one in essence and undivided in divine nature.

3. God created heaven and earth, and all things visible and invisible, out of nothing, by His free divine will and power.

4. God created man in His own image and likeness, endowing him with intellect, free will, and the capacity for communion with God and growth toward deification.

5. Through the disobedience of the first man, Adam, sin and death entered the world. All humanity inherits the consequences of this ancestral fall—corruption, mortality, and a propensity toward sin—and stands in need of redemption and healing by the grace of God.

6. Jesus Christ is true God, begotten of the Father before all ages, consubstantial with Him, and true Man, born of the Virgin Mary, who is rightly called the Mother of God.

7. Reconciliation with God and salvation are possible only through Jesus Christ, by His redemptive Incarnation, Passion, Death, and Resurrection. This grace is mediated to the faithful in the life of the Church through the Holy Mysteries (Sacraments).

8. The one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, founded by Christ upon the Apostles, is His Body. She is guided by the Holy Spirit, preserved in the apostolic faith through apostolic succession, and manifested in the fullness of the sacramental and liturgical life.

Board Members

Our Representatives

Ward’s story

As a Christian born and raised in Bethlehem—the sacred birthplace of our Lord Jesus Christ—I have been granted a profound blessing by Divine Providence. Yet throughout my life I have beheld the sorrowful diminishment of our Christian community, once the greater part of the population, and now a small remnant. This reveals a grave spiritual reality: without the living presence of the faithful, the Holy Land risks becoming little more than a collection of empty monuments, stripped of the continuous prayer and liturgical life that have sanctified these places since the days of the apostles in first-century Palestine.

Economic hardship, the pressures of extremism, and the burdens of daily life compelled me to leave my ancestral homeland. I carry within me both a deep love for this land and an unwavering devotion to Christ. These trials have only strengthened my resolve. My path mirrors that of many young Christians in Bethlehem who endure similar afflictions, and it echoes the patience of our Savior, who freely took up the Cross and by His Resurrection overcame the world. Following the example of the saints who shone forth in this same land—bearing witness under successive waves of persecution—I am determined to remain a voice for the remnant community, the living stones who, through their steadfast presence and prayer, continue to guard the holy places.

Through my work with Holylands Arts I seek to offer a means of livelihood to the Christian artisans of Bethlehem, so that their craftsmanship and their struggles may be known among households far beyond our borders. In this modest way I hope to strengthen the living Christian heritage of the Holy Land, that the flame of faith may not be extinguished, and that hope in the Risen Christ may continue to shine from the place of His Nativity for generations yet to come.

Talk with Ward

Ward Qumsieh, founder

Email: wardq@theholylands.org

Phone: (314) 312-2033