The MECC President and the MECC Team in an Interactive Panel Discussion

Dr. Michel E. Abs

Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches

The present speech was delivered as an introductory intervention during the visit of the member of the Presidium of the Middle East Council of Churches representing the Oriental Orthodox Family during his meeting with the central MECC Team. The aim of the meeting was for praying together and exchanging ideas on ecumenical affairs.

We seek to institutionalize the occasional proceeding, for the team to meet with the leaders of the MECC and the leaders of the churches in open sessions during which matters are raised frankly and lovingly with the aim of establishing an institutional and social cohesion between the leaders of the Council and the working teams in the field.

His Eminence Anba Antonios was present at the session which was opened with prayer followed by the following short speech that summarized and heralded a new path in ecumenical work in the Middle East:

Your Eminence Anba Antonios,

Metropolitan of the Jerusalem See, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Kuwait and Iraq

Reverent Fathers

Dear colleagues,

It is our pleasure and our honor to receive in the premises of the Middle East Council of Churches His Eminence Anba Antonios and Father Andraos Al Antouny during the visit of His Eminence to Lebanon.

We wanted this visit to be an official and expanded one, including a visit to Our Lady Medical Social Center and the central administration office in Beirut, including a general meeting with the team in Beirut aiming that all those concerned with ecumenical work get to know each other and get to know the leaders of the churches and the council.

Your visit, Your Eminence, comes at the beginning of a new era in the work of the MECC Executive Committee, of which your Eminence is President as you were elected by a blessed Church family, chosen from a blessed Church.

You accompanied the first meeting held online by the Executive Committee, you chaired its second session and led its closing prayer. You must have closely examined the work that the Council is undertaking, as well as the magnitude of the huge challenges it is dealing with and the vast responsibilities it is shouldering. The work ahead of us is very great, and we ask God to help us perform our duty in the best possible way. In all of this, we very much rely on the support provided to us by the leaders of the Council as well as by the leaders of its member churches.

This Executive Committee was elected under the auspices of the See of St. St. Mark, during the historic general assembly that was held at the Logos Papal Center - Anba Bishoy Monastery in Wadi El-Natrun, at the kind invitation of His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark for the Coptic Orthodox Church, following a long period of parting caused by the pandemic that has been ravaging the world.

The present Executive Committee has four years of hard work ahead of it that embraces and directs the MECC's working group and facilitates its path of creativity and achievement.

We rely a lot on this support, and if it is true that the message of a letter could be deduced from its title, the decisions taken in the first meeting of the Executive Committee foresee great and fruitful harmony between the decision-making body, i.e., the Executive Committee, and the field implementation body, i.e. the MECC field working team.

The Executive Committee will monitor the Council's progress towards modern organizational structures as well as foster working methods that are in line with the developments taking place in the world at field level. It will also accompany the Council in entering into new areas that enhance differential advantages to be targeted in the service of the Church, of humankind as well as of society at large.

We are well aware of the heavy responsibilities entrusted to you in managing Your colossal diocese, but we are sure that you will give our Council the attention it requires as befits your known competencies, personal endowments and spirituality.

Your Eminence,

From these modest headquarters premises , small  in relation to the Council’s work and projects, and through this humble team small in number but great in its achievements, we communicate with all the churches of the Region and with all the churches of the world, conveying to them the pain and hopes of Christians and of the people of the Region in a Christian-humane approach that considers people to be created by God as equals in status,  as well as in a mutuality of charity, and we, through our Christian faith, are the guarantor for that.

From these headquarters, the members of the MECC Team gather around you today in order to get to know you, exchange ideas with you, and ask you questions. We count on your patience and discernment in this matter.

At the end of my intervention, I would also like to express my appreciation to Father Andraos Al Antouny, the Coptic Orthodox priest in Lebanon, for the cooperation he showed  and the endeavors  he undertook with us during the preparations for the General Assembly. He worked tirelessly and with a spirit of initiative that is to be praised in order to facilitate matters that would have reflected negatively on the General Assembly had it not been for his assistance. For all that, we extend to him our most warm thanks.

Your Honor, this visit of yours is only the beginning of an era of communication, interaction and cooperation between you as Chairperson of the Council and of its Executive Committee and the MECC Team.

May God help us in achieving that which will lead to  the good of the Church as well as of the  people.

Ras Beirut - 04 July 2022