"The Poorest Deserve the Best"


The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has used his Christmas Day sermon to reflect on the problems of the Middle East, with the theme "the poorest deserve the best". Here is the full text of the sermon:

"Three days ago in Bethlehem, I was holding a new-born baby in my arms."

He had been abandoned by his mother, found by the side of the road and taken into the St Vincent creche, attached to Holy Family Hospital - along with dozens of other children who had been similarly abandoned, usually because they had been born to single mothers in what is often still a fiercely patriarchal and puritanical society.

But other stories from the creche and the wards remind you of some of the even bigger challenges of the region." Read Full Article

"Born in Bethlehem"
by Tim Butcher


We wanted to find the hospital that would
make Jane feel most comfortable.

Tim Butcher, currently based in the Middle East, has just become a father for the first time, but he is not sure how grateful his son will be when he realises the significance of his birthplace.

A baby has just been born in Bethlehem and, while the birth might not quite have the same global impact of its illustrious predecessor, for Jane and me it was our own modest miracle.

Based as journalists in the disputed city of Jerusalem, the arrival of our first child posed a dilemma, as where the baby would be born had implications. Read Full Article