Mother Agapia Stephanopoulos on Palestinian Christians, Gaza, and the Land of Jesus

Описание: In this episode of Faithful Politics, we sit down with Mother Agapia Stephanopoulos, a Greek Orthodox nun who has spent nearly three decades living and working in Jerusalem and the West Bank. From her early years teaching Palestinian girls in Bethany to walking daily through Israeli checkpoints during the Second Intifada, Mother Agapia brings a rare, lived perspective on what life looks like for Christians inside the world’s longest-running military occupation.

She explains how Palestinian Christians are cut off from their own holy sites, why families lose access to their land and livelihoods, and how daily life under occupation quietly grinds people down. We talk about the separation wall she watched being built, the way settlements have transformed the West Bank, and why the promise of a Palestinian state was structured to fail long before today’s violence.

The conversation also turns to Gaza, October 7, and the role of the United States. Mother Agapia challenges the dominant Western narrative and explains how U.S. weapons, money, and diplomatic protection enable Israeli policies that continue to devastate Christian and Muslim communities alike.

Throughout it all, she reflects on what faith looks like when bombs fall, when families are displaced, and when people are forced to live with humiliation and fear. It is a conversation about Christ’s homeland, political power, and what it means to stand with people who have nowhere else to go.

Useful Link:
Convent website: https://www.stnicholasconvent.org/
Two groups that offer trips to Israel and Palestine to understand life of Christians there:
https://www.telosgroup.org/resources/...
https://www.fosna.org/

Guest Bio
Mother Agapia Stephanopoulos is a Greek Orthodox Christian nun who entered monastic life in 1991 and has spent decades serving in Jerusalem and the West Bank. She worked in Orthodox schools for Palestinian children and lived through the Second Intifada, the construction of the separation wall, and the expansion of Israeli settlements.

Her work centers on Palestinian Christian communities and how occupation shapes daily life, faith, and survival in the Holy Land. She challenges the use of Christian theology to justify violence and land seizure and speaks widely about the human and spiritual cost of the conflict. She is also the sister of journalist George Stephanopoulos.