An MECC Delegation On a Visit to His Beatitude Patriarch Mor Ignatius Youssef III Younan
Preparations for the Ecumenical Musical Event in 2024
A delegation from the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) visited His Beatitude Patriarch Mor Ignatius Youssef III Younan, Syriac Catholic Patriarch of Antioch, on Thursday 28 December 2023, at the headquarters of the Patriarchal See in Al Mathaf - Beirut. The delegation included the Director of the MECC Theological and Ecumenical Department Father Dr. Antoine Al Ahmar, and the Coordinator of the Ecumenical Musical Event that MECC will hold in 2024 Mr. Marc Merhej
The meeting was attended by His Eminence Bishop Mathias Charles Mrad, the Patriarchal Vicar of the Eparchy of Beirut, Monsignor Habib Mrad, the General Patriarchal Economus and Patriarchal Secretary, and Father Karim Kalash, the Assistant Secretary of the Patriarchate.
During the visit, the MECC delegation presented to His Beatitude greetings on the occasion of Christmas and New Year, asking God to grant him good health and success and wishing him many years of goodness, blessing and holiness.
The delegation also presented to His Beatitude Patriarch Mor Ignatius Youssef III Younan the ongoing preparations for the MECC fifty-year jubilee of its founding, in 2024, and highlighted the most important activities that the Council will organize for the occasion. Hence, the delegation asked the blessing of His Beatitude for the Ecumenical musical event that MECC will hold next January, and invited him to participate in it.
Noting that this event will bring together a group of musical choirs, which will include more than 350 singers, accompanied by about 50 musicians from the symphony orchestra, who are clergy, consecrated and lay people, from various Church families and Liturgical traditions, and from various ages.
For his part, His Beatitude Patriarch Mor Ignatius Youssef III Younan welcomed the MECC delegation and congratulated it on the glorious holidays, stressing the importance of this pioneering work and activity that comes with the opening of the golden jubilee year for the MECC establishment, and within the activities of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. He also wished the delegation success, and asked God to bless this event and all its organizers and planners, so it can be a factor of unity that brings together believers from different Churches, which reflects the reality of the One body of the Church with its diverse members.