In the Church of Christ, there is neither a refugee nor a stranger

Dr. Michel E. Abs

Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches

Refugees have an International Day on the twentieth of June.

The phenomenon needs us to stop in front of it, as their number has become more than 80 million worldwide and they are increasing at the rate of twenty refugees, forcibly displaced, every minute.

Imagine how wounded humanity is and how the number of vulnerable people, of all kinds and for various reasons, is increasing.

The United Nations has classified this group of heavy burdens into different categories. We have quoted some definitions from its website in order to avoid confusion between the groups to whom we need to extend a helping hand so that they be lifted out of poverty and misery.

The first category consists of refugees, “they are individuals who are forced to leave their homes in order to preserve their liberties or to save their lives. They do not enjoy the protection of their state – in fact, their government often threatens them with persecution. And if they are not allowed to enter other countries and not provided if they do enter with protection and assistance, these countries would have condemned them to death - or an unbearable life in the shadows, without access to a livelihood and without any rights."

As for the second category, it consists of asylum seekers, who are those who declare that they are refugees without a final decision on their application.

As for the third category, it consists of internally displaced persons or refugees. “They are persons or groups who have been forced or compelled to flee - without crossing an internationally recognized border - from their homes or places of habitual residence, or to leave them in order to avoid armed conflict, or because of the outbreak of violence, or human rights abuses, natural or man-made disasters.” The United Nations considers that "it is often wrong to call "refugees" the internally displaced persons."

As for the fourth category, it consists of the stateless, which is “the status of an individual who is not considered a citizen by any state. Although stateless persons may also be refugees in some cases, there is a discrepancy between the two categories. Statelessness may result from miscellaneous reasons, including discrimination against minorities in nationality-related  legislation, failure to include all resident populations in the group of citizens when a state was declared independent, and conflict of laws between states.” The creative movie makers, Duraid Lahham and Muhammad Al-Maghout, embodied this situation in a funny-crying manner in their successful and expressive film "The Borders".

Finally, the fifth category is called “returnees”, “they are refugees who have decided to return voluntarily, safely and dignified, to their homes from which they were forcibly expelled. Individuals in this category need continuous support for their reintegration and ensuring the provision of an enabling environment for them to build a new life in their countries of origin.”

These are, according to the classification of the United Nations, the categories described as refugees, which various international organizations have devoted themselves to helping in numerous ways to stabilize and improve their lives.

Since its inception, the Middle East Council of Churches has worked to establish and implement programs concerned with refugees, in cooperation with specialized United Nations organizations and other institutions of the Ecumenical world.

In addition, we must emphasize that the category called "refugees" has occupied a distinct place in the programs of ecumenical bodies, and the term "refugees" is included in all their lists.

Our work, in the MECC and the ecumenical bodies that form with it one global body, stems from what we have learned from the Lord Jesus Christ and what the Church of Christ has embodied.

Is it not He who taught us that "Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it." “Remember those who are bound, as though you were bound with them, and the afflicted, as though you were also in the body” (Hebrews 13:2).

Is it not Him who said, “Freely you have received, freely give (Matthew 10:8)?” and “do not look each to his own, but each one to the things of others also” (Philippians 2:4)?

The Master has identified Himself with strangers, exhausted and miserable to the end! “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?  When did we see you a stranger, invite you in or needing clothes, and clothe you?  When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (Matthew 25:35-40).

The Church of Christ honored the commandment of its Creator, and it was behind the establishment of countless organizations, programs and projects that deal with strangers, refugees and people in misery, trying to deal with the various forms of needs that refugee families are burdened with. More importantly, the values ​​that Christianity exuded were behind a universal culture that yearned for support and solidarity for those whose life became hard, regardless of race, religion and creed.

The concern for strangers, refugees and the destitute has entered the heart of the Church's culture, as it took a special place in its rites and hymns, in a way that confirms that, in the Church of Christ, there is neither a refugee nor a stranger.

In this context, we quote the hymn “Give me this Stranger” from the Antioch liturgical prayer on the eve of Good Friday, where the worshipers sing:

“Seeing that the sun had hidden its rays and the veil of the Temple had been rent at the death of the Saviour, Joseph did approach Pilate and did plead with him crying and saying,

Give me this stranger, who from his youth hath wandered like a stranger.

Give me this stranger, whom his kinsmen killed in hatred like a stranger.

Give me this stranger at whom I wonder, beholding him as a guest of death.

Give me this stranger who knoweth how to take in the poor and strangers.

Give me this stranger whom the Jews in envy estranged from the world.

Give me this stranger that I may bury him in a tomb, who being a stranger hath no place whereon to lay his head.

Give me this stranger, to whom his Mother, beholding him dead, shouted crying, “O my Son and my God, even though my vitals be wounded, and my heart burns, as I behold thee dead, yet trusting in thy Resurrection, I magnify thee.”

In these words the honorable Joseph pleaded with Pilate, took the Savior’s body, and with fear wrapped it in linen and balms, placing thee in a new tomb, O thou who grantest to all everlasting life and the great mercy.”

If this text suggests anything, it suggests, beyond dispute, that, outside the Church of Christ, asylum and exile are two havens and two exiles, one inside the homeland of man and his society and the other one outside it, and each one is bitterer than the other.

 Is this not what the people of the Antiochian Levant suffer from?