Christ is in our Midst!

Welcome to St. George Greek Orthodox Church of Taybeh in Palestine, the country Constantine the Great named the "Holy Land." We are located in the only all Christian village left in Palestine renamed "Taybeh" (meaning good) in the 12th century from the old biblical name "Ephraim." Our oral history says that the original St. George Orthodox Christian Church in our village was built in the fourth century by St. Constantine and St. Helen and currently is an archeological site where the local Christian residents, less than 2000, light their candles daily. This special holy place continues to be the treasure of our village and looks down at the Jordan Valley where St. Mary of Egypt spent more than forty years of her life seeking forgiveness.

The present and new church of St. George was completed in 1931 on the same ground where another byzantine church of St. George was destroyed twice by aging. Our church is under the guidance of His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos III, the Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, Palestine, Syria, beyond the Jordan River, Cana of Galilee & Holy Zion. All of the Orthodox faithful are of Palestinian ethnicity; however, in Jerusalem a few hundred people of Greek ethnicity also have deep roots in Palestine in addition to the two hundred serving in the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre.

Our parish priest, Fr. David (Daoud) Philip Khoury has served the church since 1986 with about two hundred fifty families. Fr. Tawfik Nasr, memory eternal (Nov 27, 1923 – Dec 21, 2011) was the retired priest in our village who had more than fifty years in Christ's service.

This website was specifically set up to bring awareness of Orthodox Christians in the land of Christ's birth and to seek assistance in helping people stay in this little Christian village preserving their heritage and traditions of over two thousand years having survived many wars, occupations and political hardships as an authentic witness to Christ’s love and peace.