The local Christians are living witnesses to grace and God’s providential protection and heirs to an incomparable spiritual tradition in liturgy, music, linguistics, theology, architecture and iconography – a Hebrew, Syriac, Greek, Armenian, Latin, Coptic, Ethiopic and Arabic heritage, which is one of the spiritual treasures of the entire human family. These shrines are first and foremost their shrines. One must hope and pray that they might have the same freedom to visit their own holy places as those of us who have made this land our home and the multitudes who journey from afar as pilgrims. The author, Gregory Collins OSB, is since 2012 the Abbot of the Dormition Abbey on the Mount of Zion in Jerusalem, located on the no-man's-land between West- and East-Jerusalem.