The title of this book leads us into the world of anthropology with the idea of liminality, or moving over a threshold, from one place to another, with all the ambiguity and disorientation which that evokes. Here it concerns a Church rather than a person going through a rite of passage, a change that arises out of political and social upheaval. As it lives through this, the Church has to rethink and redefine the way it works and lives.

The time of that change is a single decade from 1946 to 1956; the place is the holy land of Israel, Palestine; the Church is the Latin diocese of Jerusalem. The period begins with the ending of the British mandate and resumption of talks over the partition of Palestine, in the context of the growing number of Jewish immigrants after the Second World War. It continues with war, the founding of the state of Israel in 1948 and the annexation of the West Bank by the kingdom of Jordan in 1950. It comes to an end with the conflict over ownership of and access to the Suez canal. In that period the political configuration of the Middle East was transformed.

There have been conflicting histories of these climactic events. This book tells the story of the experiences of the Latin diocese. The diocese, which is one of the few Catholic dioceses where the bishop has the title of patriarch, looks back to a foundation in 1099 during the crusades, a long period when the post was titular and the bishop resided in Rome, to its refoundation in 1842. It was caught up in a complex network of relationships. Its membership was – and is – around 95 per cent Arab, but accepts the authority of the papacy in Rome with the Franciscan order preserving the Holy Places; it had to define its relationship with the Zionism of the State of Israel and growth of Arab nationalism in response to this. In both Judaism and Islam, religious faith is intertwined with secular nationalism, through the question being asked of whether identity as Jews or Arabs is defined by ethnicity or faith. And the place of Christians within this debate has added uncertainty. Within the Christian community too, the Latin patriarchate occupies an uneasy position. There are twelve Christian communities in the Arab world. All belong to the Orthodox East, including the Catholic Melkite Church, except for the patriarchate of Jerusalem which is western in liturgy and Roman in authority.

The events of this decade can be recounted in divergent and polemical histories, which reflect the experiences of the various communities. This book tells the story of one diocesan community in its complex and often contradictory relationships. Drawing on the records in the diocesan archives and other primary sources it tells the stories of the priests, the parishes and those who shared its life. It is a story of disruption, of hardship, of the struggle to co-exist with others – and of adjustment and redefinition. Since the scope of the account is limited and personal, this approach gives an immediacy and vividness to the events.

The book begins by setting the Latin Church in its context, showing the history which led to its place in the Middle East and then the political situation after the end of the Second World War which brought new demands. There are then chapters which show how the Church changed and adapted. Its immediate challenge was to respond to its new situation of providing pastoral care to a community of refugees. Over a half of the Christians in Palestine were forced to become refugees as their homes were occupied by the newly arrived citizens of Israel. The Christians of Jerusalem were among those expelled since about half of them had lived in the more modern western half of the city which came under Israeli rule and so they lost their homes and businesses. A major relief effort, the Pontifical Mission to Palestine, was set up to provide basic support and employment to new refugee parishes.

The papacy had been hostile to the Zionist movement, but it learned to accommodate itself to new political realities. The diocese, while made up of Arab members, also included Jewish members, some who were converted and sought membership and some who had become Christian through marriage. Their position led to the formation of an Association of St James in 1954 which set up centres or foyers in several towns. Hebrew forms of liturgy were explored, removing anti-Jewish passages in the Good Friday liturgy and including Hebrew forms of prayer. Attempts at unity in parishes and schools in Jordan with Eastern rite Melkite Catholics were unsuccessful, and the two forms of Catholic church life continued alongside one another, with the Latin Catholic patriarch in Jerusalem and the Greek Catholic patriarch in Damascus.

The Latin Church has retained its position in the holy city. An Arab, Michel Sabbah, was consecrated as patriarch in 1987. It remains the largest Christian community in Jerusalem with, in 2015, around 4,500 members out of a total Christian population of 11,000. It has an important role in society, especially in education with its schools and colleges providing education for over 40,000 young people, including Greek Orthodox and Muslims, and so exercising influence across Arab society. It continued to care for the Holy Places as set out in the Status Quo of 1852. This position led to an assertion of Catholic faith when Pope Pius xii declared 1954 as a Marian year, when a new basilica dedicated to the Virgin at Nazareth was planned, and this was completed in 1968.

This continuing vitality shows that while its passage across the threshold of liminality has not been easy, and has not freed it from the challenges of life in a polarised society, the Latin diocese of Jerusalem continues its witness for justice and care of its people.