Meet Ward Qumsieh

A Christian born in Bethlehem and founder of Holylands Arts

As a Christian born and raised in Biblical Shepherds’ Field, I have been granted a profound blessing by Divine Providence. Yet I have beheld the sorrowful diminishment of our Christian community from the greater part of the population to a small remnant. Without the living presence of the faithful, the Holy Land risks becoming empty monuments, stripped of the prayer and liturgical life that have sanctified these places since the apostles in first-century Palestine.

Economic hardship, extremism, and the burdens of daily life compelled me to leave my ancestral homeland. I carry 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 and echoes our Savior, who took up the Cross and by His Resurrection overcame the world. Following the saints who bore witness here under persecution, I remain a voice for the remnant—the living stones who guard the holy places through presence and prayer.

Through Holylands Arts, I seek to offer livelihood to the Catholic and Orthodox artisans of Bethlehem, so that their craftsmanship and struggles may be known beyond our borders. In this 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 shine from the place of His Nativity for generations to come.

Meet Jeries: In the workshop

Sacred Tradition Workshop · Beit Sahour (Shepherds’ Field)

Jeries is Ward Qumsieh’s cousin. In Beit Sahour—Shepherds’ Field—he carves olive wood with hands shaped by a lifetime of the craft. He is the tenth generation. His father taught him, as each father before had taught his son. The line stretches back to the first millennium of Christianity, when monks near the Church of the Nativity first showed local people how to shape the sacred wood. At eight, Jeries sat beside his father, learning to feel the grain, select pruned branches, wait through the long drying, and coax faces and forms from the wood with knife and chisel. A typical piece is a Holy Family or a small nativity—simple, glowing with the natural golden grain, finished only with oil or wax.

Pilgrims always ask: Where does the wood come from? Do you cut the trees? How many years has your family done this? Jeries answers enthusiastically: only pruned branches, never a living tree; ten generations, back to the earliest Christian centuries. When the light fades over the hills of Beit Sahour, he sets another finished piece aside. Somewhere far away it will tell the old story again—carried in olive wood from the Land of the Shepherds. The table Ward brings after Mass includes work from this workshop.

Board Members

Munther

Yacoub

Our Representatives

Ward

Mariam

Our mission

We work to rebuild hope and strengthen the Christian presence in the Holy Land by supporting family workshops and sharing their story with American parishes.

Our vision

Christian families can continue living and working in the Holy Land, while families in the United States come to know their story and support their work.

What we believe