BERMUDA'S Anglican Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Ewen Ratteray, has expressed his "sadness and dismay" over the troubles in the Middle East after receiving an on-the-spot account of events from his colleague, the Bishop of Jerusalem.

Yesterday Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal contacted Bishop Ratteray by e-mail from Jerusalem and confirmed that the door of the Church of the Nativity - believed to mark the birthplace of Jesus Christ - had been destroyed during violent struggles between Israelis and Palestinians.

Last summer, Bishop Ratteray visited the Holy Land and met with Bishop Riah, to whom he passed on an anonymous donation of $4,000 from Bermuda.

Bishop Riah e-mailed Bishop Ratteray yesterday and on Wednesday and passed on details of difficulties faced by the people caught up in the crisis.

"He told me that the main entrance to the Church of the Nativity had been blown up, creating fear and horror among those taking refuge in the church," Bishop Ratteray said yesterday. Explosions and heavy machine-gun fire were heard yesterday close to the church, where around 200 Palestinians, many of them armed, were understood to have sought sanctuary. But journalists were being prevented by Israeli troops from getting close enough to witness events there.

Bishop Ratteray bemoaned the lack of action from world leaders and suggested that US President George Bush should use his influence to instigate peace talks.

"It is with a profound sense of sadness and dismay that I heard of troops and gunmen in the environs of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Our Lord Jesus," said Bishop Ratteray.

"Having received an e-mail from Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal of Jerusalem I am aware of the great pressure he and the Church there are living with during these difficult times." Bishop Ratteray said Bishop Riah had written of an "incredibly horrendous" situation in the town of Ramallah in the Palestinian territories.

"He said a priest in Ramallah could not walk out of his house for fear of being shot dead," said Bishop Ratteray. "He also said that people had been executed in a neighbouring Islamic area.

"Food and water supplies are running low and ambulances are not being allowed in to reach the sick and wounded.

"The real horror is what is happening to people. Lives have been destroyed and lives are being messed about with in ways we cannot even imagine."

Bishop Ratteray first met Bishop Riah around 12 years ago.

"I first met him when I went to Israel and he was a parish priest in Nazareth," said Bishop Ratteray. "He had just been released from his house arrest that he had been under for about four years.

"The next time I met him was at an Anglican Bishops Conference at Lambeth in 1998 - and surprisingly he remembered me."

Bishop Riah officiates over a huge diocese, including the whole of Israel and Palestine, as well as Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. The church has a largely Palestinian membership.

Bishop Ratteray said his visits to the Holy Land had given him great sympathy for the people who had to live in an atmosphere of conflict and violence. In a written statement he expressed his feelings on the matter.

"The continuing tragdey of the conflict in the Holy Land is cause for great alarm among people throughout the world, not least among Christians," wrote Bishop Ratteray.

"The deafening silence of world leaders, especially in the light of what has been going on for the past several weeks, is beyond belief. Having seen at first hand, in relatively peaceful times, the effect of closure and curfews on the Palestinian people, the current aggression of the Israeli Army is quite intolerable.

"Both sides, Jews and Palestinians, are equally culpable in terms of the level of violence they inflict on each other. Constant reprisal action by the two sides will achieve nothing at all, except to increase the level of mutual hatred. Such behaviour will only exacerbate an already extreme situation.

"It would appear to me that the only way to a beginning of resolution is for the President of the United States to intervene and bring both parties to the table for talks. It has happened before and it is eminently possible. It is my fervent prayer that he will act expeditiously so that this matter may be resolved swiftly and justly.

"We keep in our prayers all the people of the region, Palestinian and Israeli: Jew, Muslim and Christian, as we await a just and lasting settlement of the many issues confronting them."