AMMAN: For almost 2,000 years, Christians have lived, worshipped and built communities in the lands that now make up Jordan.
But on Oct. 23, that long history of coexistence was shaken by an act of violence that left a small village grieving and raised painful questions about the future of Christianity in the Middle East.
Gunmen opened fire on mourners gathered for a funeral at a church in Hamoud, in the southern governorate of Karak, killing nine people and injuring dozens more.
The attack, condemned as terrorism by King Abdullah II, prompted an outpouring of national grief and solidarity. Three suspects were subsequently arrested, while the country’s political and religious leaders rallied around the victims’ families.
Yet for Jordan’s Christian minority, estimated at just 2 to 3 percent of the population, the attack left wounds that will take far longer to heal.
Among those struggling to make sense of the tragedy is Father Chrysanthus, a deacon at the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem and head of the Christian Family House in Amman.
Speaking to Editor-in-Chief and “Arab Views” podcast host Faisal J.