24th Dec.

Completed morning program.Visited CGHS, CSOI. In chamber from 2.30 to 4 pm.
Retired to sleep at 10. pm.

News of the day on Christmas eve:  "A dwindling population may vanish from Christ's birthplace, writes Nick Meo in Bethlehem."
"Christian Arab families from Bethlehem will crowd into the town's Church of the Nativity on Monday night to celebrate Christmas Eve, as their ancestors have done for nearly 2000 years.

Midnight Mass, televised around the world live from Bethlehem, will be a moving and beautiful spectacle, as it is on this night every year. But even as they celebrate in the town of Christ's birth, many of Bethlehem's dwindling population of Christians will be dreaming of a new life far away from the Holy Land.

''Like Christians elsewhere in the Middle East, I'm not sure we have a fute here,'' said Jack Giacaman, the prosperous owner of a souvenir shop who can trace his ancestors back nearly 400 years to an Italian stonemason who came to work on Franciscan churches.

''It's not like Iraq or Syria, where Christians are being killed and persecuted, thank goodness,'' he said. ''But there are few jobs for our community and we are under pressure from Jews and Muslims, both of whom are becoming more religious. Some people now say Christians could even vanish from Bethlehem.''ur

It seems hard to believe that the Christian community is in trouble. Bells still peal, echoing through the winding streets and on Sundays two services are held simultaneously in the sprawling Church of the Nativity - a Catholic one, which plays hymns on a loudspeaker outside the service, and a Greek Orthodox one next door, where the congregation listens to deep-throated singing as they are bathed in clouds of incense.

Christmas will be celebrated four times in Bethlehem in the next few weeks as the Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Syrian and Coptic churches mark it on different dates.

Last week, as a few tour parties were venturing back after the brief Gaza war caused mass cancellations, there was a huge Christmas tree in Manger Square. The squat and massive church - one of the holiest in Christendom, dating back to 339 AD - had a giant neon star shining on its roof.

''I don't think Christians will stay here because there is no work for us,'' said George, a helper at the Milk Grotto five minutes' walk south of Manger Square, where the devout believe the holy family hid before their flight from the slaughter of the innocents." Brisbane times.com.au,dt.24th Dec.2012.

Telegraph, London