Bkerke was the destination
Dr. Michel E. Abs
General Secretary of the Middle East Council of Churches
A year has passed since my election as a servant of allegiance at the rank of General Secretary.
Due to the inability to convene the General Assembly of the Middle East Council of Churches, it was decided to replace that with a meeting of the Council's leaders in order to complete the urgent constitutional process and avoid a void in the leadership of the Council at the executive level based on a review of the legal reference in the Council.
The presidents and the members of the Executive Committee attended, full of faith and yearning for ecumenical service, some of them personally and some of them participated from a distance. All employees of the council also attended.
Everyone came to Bkerke at the generous invitation of its Prelate.
Everything was wonderfully in order, in terms of place, time and work mechanisms. Things went on in the prescribed manner, without lapses or defects, as Bkerke and the Council are well-versed in hard, disciplined and organized work.
Reports were read, discussions took place, and readings were included, in an atmosphere of familiarity and solidarity, as the goal is one with no controversy or ambiguity about it: serving humankind through Christic allegiance. With this phrase I dare to shorten the entire two-thousand-year-old path of Christianity and that of half a century term of the Council.
In order to serve humanity, the Church’s pledge of allegiance must continue and be fortified because it is required to be eternal as long as existence is existence.
This task in itself is the challenges, priorities, work plans, programs and projects that the work team translates into the requirements of the times and the availability of resources, knowing that the constants do not change.
During this year studies were developed, plans were drawn up and projects were launched. During this year, many things have changed in our region, crises have escalated, challenges have increased, and divisions have deepened. During this year, our Antiochian East sank more and more into international strife. During this year, Lebanon was handed over to its tormentors, and its society entered the most dangerous stage in its modern history. It is an existential threat to stone as well as to the soul.
Divide and conquer! True, but the action becomes accelerated if you pair it with "impoverish and conquer!"
The sons of the pledge of allegiance, the pledge of the Incarnate, the Victor over annihilation, are called to be the leaven of righteousness, the salt of the earth, in an area that is gradually losing not only the elements of steadfastness and progress, but also the elements of survival and continuity. A constrained area at all levels, political, economic and psycho media.
The fact that the ecumenical meeting was held a year ago in Bkerke, in the most difficult stage of the history of Eastern Christianity, is a matter that carries connotations and meanings resulting from the symbolism of Bkerke.
The fact that the election of the Secretary-General member of Antioch of the Steadfast Faith, in the precinct of the Patriarchate of the Syriac Maronite Antiochian Church, is a message that speaks to both past as well as future history. He who has two ears to hear, let him hear.
"Either we are a tight-knit package that cannot be broken, or we will get broken piece by piece. And what we say to Christians as well as what we say about them, applies to the rest of the nation."
History beckons us to choose and will not forgive us for our choice!