Concerned Ecumenical Partners
Dr. Michel E. Abs
Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches
Over the next two days, we are holding the usual annual meeting of the ecumenical partners of the Middle Eastern churches, after nearly three years of interruption due to the pandemic that afflicted the world, which paralyzed the global travel movement and turned people to the "online" syndrome, which, truth be told, has solved many problems and significantly facilitated people’s lives.
This meeting takes place a few months after the end of the Twelfth General Assembly of the Middle East Council of Churches, which was delayed by nearly two years due to the pandemic as well. Moreover, it is being held two weeks before the meeting of the MECC Executive Committee, which will discuss basic directions in the strategies of the Council and will translate the recommendations of its General Assembly into programs and projects, according to the availability of resources.
During the past few years, there have been changes that altered the course of our lives in the Middle East, in security, in politics, in economy, in culture and in social structures. These changes have taken place at a very rapid pace in relation to the depth of the transformations they have induced.
The wind is blowing hard in our area and we are no longer able to protect ourselves against it. The wind blows us from all sides, and a large part of our area has become like a boat tossed by the waves, and it no longer knows what its fate will be. Our forces have weakened to the point that our destiny is no longer ours, and we have become subject to the whims of whoever wants to secure his own interests through us. We have thus turned ourselves into spare parts for international politics and for the interests of powerful states as well.
Some of our societies are living today the worst days of their history, and are going through crises they thought have gone away forever and have been removed far away from them... Nonetheless these crises have come back with an energy that at present destroys them, rips them apart and turns their populations into displaced people thrown into homelessness and misery.
Some of our societies are in a political and economic impasse, their social unity is threatened and may turn them into fragments of a society if this present situation of a loss of unity becomes permanent. This unity is the guarantee of stability and consequently of progress and prosperity.
Some of our societies are like a device that lost its system and has become misplaced, tossed by caprices and external wills. They lack the compass and no longer know the way out of their predicament, so they found themselves drowning in a quicksand with nobody to rescue them.
During the past five decades, three societies in the Middle East, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, were systematically destroyed, after being somehow stable, prosperous, and on the path of progress at a steady pace. Palestine had preceded them into devastation and the displacement of its people, and this was the introduction to their present predicament.
Is what happened to these societies an external conspiracy that sabotaged them, or is it latent internal problems that moved and devastated everything?
These two causes are interrelated and complement each other. One of them alone is not sufficient to cause this huge amount of damage.
There is no doubt that there are conspiracies that are being brewed against us, and those who plot them will succeed in carrying them out and getting what they seek from us, but we have to admit that the main conspiracy lies in ourselves, in our shortcomings and in the bad predispositions that we have acquired over the ages due to the large number of colonizers, invaders and occupiers that have passed by our countries.
Here we must seek to figure out the ways that lead to the immunization of society against the forces of decay.
How can we make our societies immune and prevent them from regressing back to square one every few decades?
The answers are many and varied, and there is no one single variable that leads to that.
Dealing with social disintegration, at all levels, requires a multi-dimensional, multi-objective approach carried-out by multi-disciplinary groups that collaborate in a joint action that leads to the desired end.
Dealing with social degeneration requires that multidisciplinary and skilled teams be in an organizational setting that allows them to raise their effectiveness and improve their performance. As for the most important thing, it is for the members of these groups to have a faith-value bond that strengthens them and guides them to the appropriate goals that lead these societies to a better life.
Moreover, if there is no synergy between the faith-value and the technical dimensions, then it is in vain that we try to bring about social change and progress. Competencies and know-how alone are not enough. The controlling element of human energies is the faith, doctrinal and value element, which directs individuals and groups to the correct goals that suit the lives of these societies and move them towards a better tomorrow.
We, in the Middle East Council of Churches, are fully aware of these realities whether they are related to the conditions of some of our societies, or to the conditions required for the effectiveness of organizations that heal the wounds of these societies.
The Middle East Council of Churches was created on the basis of the Christian faith, on the basis of partnership between churches, and on the basis of serving humanity, of reaching every human being as well as include all dimensions that girdle human personal life. By virtue of being a fellowship of the Church of Christ in the region, it is ecumenical by nature. In the MECC the churches keep their heritage and identity, but at the same time, merge in a common experience that gradually includes them all, despite all obstacles, suffering and pain. The important thing is that the ensuing outcome of the experiment is good, pioneering, and promising.
In the Middle East Council of Churches, we actually live three experiences:
The first experience is the interaction of the believers of the churches with each other in a process of mutual maturation that we can describe as unique.
The second experience is the interaction of this organized human group, called the Middle East Council of Churches, with its global ecumenical environment in a mutual maturation process that is different in kind. Here, cultural differences make this interaction bear many challenges and make the dialogue between them also a unique maturational path.
As for the third experience, it lies in the interaction between the Middle East Council of Churches and its immediate societal environment, plagued with contradictions and problems amounting at times to disasters.
The most important thing in these three experiences, is how the international ecumenical family has interacted with these societies despite their cultural differences, and has dealt with their concerns, while remaining at the same time anxious for healing their wounds and transforming such wounds into assets that constitute integral parts of their lives that need to be attended to. The international ecumenical family thus felt that it was not enough to attend to these societies through a regional ecumenical partner, so they came and settled in the heart of these societies in order to hear closely what they wanted to tell them.
There is no doubt that the Christian faith is the main motivator of this concern. Thus, the revered International Ecumenical Family considers that our peoples are the heavy laden whom the Incarnate Word – Jesus Christ, wanted to comfort. The strength of the faith bond is not matched by any other force, and the drive that this bond gives is not matched by any other drive.
The Middle East Council of Churches, as a place of Christian togetherness, constitutes, through the know-how and efficiency of its working groups, as well as through its communication with the community, an early warning alarm for unhealthy social phenomena and a response center to these phenomena, and this with the energy and resources available to it.
In doing so, the Council relies on three forms of support:
The first of these is the trust that it gets from church leaders as well as from believers at the popular level, i.e., parishioners - wherever it operates,
The second form is the trust that it gets from society at large, from people and institutions,
The third is the trust it has from the partners, sisters and brothers in the International Ecumenical Family,
The trust that the Council has thus acquired was built through decades of work and interaction through these three dimensions of MECC’s existence, which enabled it to acquire high credibility with its various stakeholders. This is what has helped it to rise from the crisis it went through about a decade ago and which some thought it would lead to its eventual collapse.
During that crisis, support came from these three sides, the churches, the community as well as partners in the international ecumenical family, and you know very well what your role was in saving the Council, for which you became an essential part of its historical memory and ethos.
As we gather today in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we share with you our concerns and aspirations within our well-known context, based on the principles on which the Council was founded. These principles are expressed in our Constitution and in the literature that has been produced by us for nearly half a century. They are moreover clear in our present practices as well as in the services we provide to the community.
Today we are in a bitter struggle between good and evil on the land of Christ, in the Cradle of the first advent of Christianity, and we are fully aware of the importance of the role we play in this struggle as we prepare for our forthcoming fifty-year jubilee. We carry in us the concerns of the churches together as well as the concerns of the people, thus trying to be as much as possible on the level of the challenges that face us.
Speaking of the challenges in our countries, they take various forms, from the superficial ones that impede our daily lives and reflect on our ability to achievement and productivity, and the fundamental ones that threaten our societies at the core and at the foundations of their existence. Everything is a challenge, and every moment carries one challenge or more. In short, we are in a shaky socio-economic-political structure that needs a lot of effort in order to be brought back to a minimum level of stability.
The challenges we face are inevitably the result of the crises that some of our societies are going through. Dealing with them ranges from meeting the basic needs of society, such as food, water, and housing, on the one hand, and, on the other, working to rehabilitate the social structures in their depth in response to the disintegration they have been exposed to during the past decades. The Middle East Council of Churches does not present itself only as a relief and development organization. Such concerns are essential issues that cannot be ignored. Moreover, they are also issues that our key partners consider as essential in consolidating religious faith, correcting concepts and social relations, leading to a new social contract and building an all-inclusive citizenship. The foundations of this struggle, the Council takes from the concepts and values of Christianity the foundations on which it is built and on which its work is built.
The Council has helped the homeless and the destitute, and worked in development, in the media, in advocating just causes, and in spreading the culture of human dignity among the people of societies, where some have forgotten the meaning of dignity. The package of projects implemented or prepared by the Council indicates the depth of its understanding of life and society in our country, as well as the ambitious vision of its team. There is an Arabic poetry that goes: “If the souls are grand, the bodies are tired with their desires.” This is our situation and our offices are beehives where our teams work tirelessly and produce what requires in fact a larger number of personnel to accomplish.
We are a partner in this path of societal revival, a partner small in size, large in its capabilities and symbolism, and if we have been able so far to secure great achievements with very limited resources, this is by virtue of the faith that says to this mountain move and it moves.
We feel more than satisfied when we see how concerned you are in what we do and what we aspire to, you, our international ecumenical sisters and brothers. How reassured we feel when we see you share our concerns and pain and when you share with us your experiences on how to deal with challenges. The discussion sessions that we hold with each of you individually or collectively express to us sufficiently how much you are concerned with us. They show your eagerness towards us. Your feelings that exude through our interaction together do not go unnoticed.
Many of you have heard or read me using the expression "concern". This expression means a lot to us because it carries in itself a sincere solidarity connotation that cannot be summed up in this word alone.
Therefore, I say to you at the end of my intervention, you are welcome, at your home and among your family, in a long-awaited for demonstration of solidarity. We will be having other meetings in different fields, some of which have to do with programs, and some with various cultural and intellectual issues that deal with our common concerns we who carry the message of the Savior and who want to enlighten the world with it. Together we shall remain the salt of the earth that protects the human race from corruption.