Christians, Persecution and Freedom
Fifty
Dr. Michel Abs,
MECC Secretary General,
On the occasion of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in Egypt, the Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) Dr. Michel E. Abs attended the opening Prayer of this week, headed by His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark, during which he delivered a speech entitled “Fifty.” At its beginning, Dr. Michel Abs addressed His Holiness Pope Tawadros II with a word of love and condolence following the attack, on Monday 12 March 2024, on three monks from the Coptic Orthodox Church at the Monastery of Saint Mark the Apostle and Saint Samuel the Confessor in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The Most Respected, His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark,
Their Most Respected Beatitudes,
Their Most Respected Eminences,
The Most Respected Reverends,
The Most Respected Fathers,
O believers gathered around Love and Faith,
Christians, Persecution and Freedom
From the trial, the flogging, the road to Calvary, the crucifixion, and the Resurrection, to throwing Christians as food to predators, to uprooting them from their homes, the line is one, straight, without any snaking or ambiguity in understanding its path or its interpretation.
The history of Christianity, from its inception and through its rise, is a path fraught with dangers, sacrifices, and testimony on the path to resurrection. The purest testimony is blood testimony.
In the footsteps of the Incarnate Lord, who redeemed us with His coming, Christians continue to walk in all areas of their spread. They heal wounds and being hurt by many. They spread knowledge and are assassinated by the ignorant. They enshrine freedom and are stabbed by those who practice slavery. They light up the night of the world and darkness comes to destroy them.
When this night will be over?
The three monks killed in South Africa form an additional laurel wreath in the path of spreading the message of love and peace.
We cannot say to their Church, families, society, or to humanity except: Christ is risen.
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me” (Matthew 5:11-12)
Fifty
“When the day of Pentecost came, all the apostles were together in one place” (Acts 2:1).
This verse is the slogan adopted by the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) on its fiftieth anniversary. The slogan was designed by the MECC team, in collaboration with the Council’s Communication Department, in a way that merges the fiftieth year of foundation with the Council’s well-known slogan. To this, the verse, the logo, and four stars were added, representing the four families that make up the MECC.
It was a blessed day when the pledge of allegiance to the Master was made on the island of Cyprus, the Star of the Mediterranean, in May 1974. It was then that it was announced that an agreement had been reached to strengthen relations between its components, in an institution unanimously called the Middle East Council of Churches. This period was the culmination of a decades-long process during which a large group of church leaders and faithful, who yearned to see a common Christian action, called for ecumenical action, exerted tireless efforts.
At that time, those in charge realized the seriousness of what they were undertaking. Thus, they employed their energy and expertise in organizing this emerging and promising organization, and devoted their time to work on everything that ensures its continuity and success. The first Secretary-General was from Egypt, from the land of the Nile, from the house of the Holy Family.
Initially, the Council included three ecclesiastical families. Then, in the nineties, the fourth family joined the Council, and it became composed of Eastern Orthodox, Orthodox, Evangelical, and Catholic families.
During the period since its founding, the MECC has undergone many stages and transformations at the level of programs, concerns, and organizational structure. It was affected during this period by regional and international transformations that had an impact on it. However, it was able to continue thanks to its curators, including presidents, secretaries-general, and faithful engaged persons.
In terms of organizational structure, the Council consists of a General Assembly that meets every four years, or when necessary. The Assembly’s role is to receive and discuss reports on achievements, approve future directions submitted by the MECC team after consultation with the competent committees, and after the approval of the Executive Committee. It also elects an Executive Committee and a Secretary-General for the following four years. The Executive Committee, in turn, appoints three Associate Secretaries-general from the three ecclesiastical families that are not the secretary-general’s family. In the past three years, the Council has witnessed a restoration of the historic role of the associate secretaries-general, in the context of establishing a decision-making system with the broadest consultation and participation.
In its fiftieth year, the Council is an advanced institution at the level of programs. It deals with a variety of needs, starting with emergency relief, to development projects that include vocational training and support in the field of crafts, agriculture, and other areas necessary to secure income for the neediest families. Its programs also include rights education, health education, trauma recovery assistance, and environmental protection. It organizes seminars on human dignity, social dialogue, and other means of building social capital. In addition to all this, the MECC has been concerned with the restoration of church buildings and institutions, and the restoration of houses damaged by the earthquake that struck the region last year. It is worth mentioning that there are many projects in preparation that will soon be launched. In all this, the MECC embodies the Good Samaritan values and example.
In its fiftieth year, the Council is also an advanced institution in terms of organization and administration. It is building its human capacities through training and education, and at the same time, it is developing its administrative and financial methods through the development and renewal of its internal procedural processes. This is in line with global trends in the field of organization and management of Faith-Based and Non-Governmental organizations – FBOs and NGOs- and in response to the requirements of sister international bodies. At the same time, its accounting system is being renewed to increase speed and effectiveness in financial and accounting work, aiming to achieve high financial efficiency.
In both, the programmatic and the administrative-financial areas, the MECC demonstrates high effectiveness and transparency. This has earned it high credibility with international partners, both ecclesiastical and secular, as evidenced by their eagerness to collaborate with us and prioritize us in their programs and projects.
This has led to the formation of a new institutional culture within the Council, which has seen some decline in the past, due to changes at the level of the team. We all know that organizational culture finds its guarantee and continuity in the individuals who embody it and carry its historical memory.
Today, the Council is present in four countries of the Middle East and is eager to return to countries where it was previously present. Our churches have never withheld hosting or support from the Council, a fact that is widely known, especially among our international partners.
Your Holiness, Your Beatitude, Your Eminence, and Reverent Pastors,
This is the status of your Council in its fiftieth year. If congratulations are in order, they are from us to you, for continuing together in this institution for half a century despite the difficulties experienced by both the region and the institution.
The ecumenical spirit is manifested by your presence together. The most recent manifestation of this was in May 2022, when a general assembly was held at the Papal Logos Center - Anba Bishoy Monastery, in Wadi El-Natroun, after an absence of six years due to the pandemic. This twelfth general assembly marked the culmination of the first fifty years of the Council’s existence.
This ecumenical spirit, and the ecumenical culture derived from it, is on an advanced path, with momentum. While it may change depending on certain circumstances, it has definitely not experienced any setback.
As for the fiftieth year, also known as the Golden Jubilee, the Executive Committee emphasized that it should be a year of evaluation, reflection, and foresight, devoid of ostentation or any manifestations that we do not find appropriate. Thanks to the Lord who manages matters, the MECC team was already reflecting in this direction, and so it has been.
The Executive Committee formed a special sub-committee from among its members to organize the programs for the fiftieth year. This committee met with the working group several times, and a program framework for the fiftieth year was produced and approved by the Executive Committee. We circulated it to church leaders.
The program framework includes four sections:
1. Prayers and spiritual hymn meetings
2. Lectures and seminars
3. Dissemination of informational materials
4. Publications
The first section includes the week of prayer for unity. We have chosen to launch the activities of the fiftieth year during this week. I have come to Egypt to attend the opening prayers of the week of unity in this context. Within this trend, the MECC became a partner in the Ecumenical Musical Event that took place in Beirut last January. This section also includes the proposal of ecumenical prayer evenings in more than one country in the Middle East, according to the availability of human and operational resources. We will also hold a mixed hymn evening towards the end of this year. The aim of these ecumenical and mixed evenings is to strengthen the cohesion between people and to raise common values, which are based on the worship of the one Lord, the Creator of this universe and the creator of creation.
The second section consists of three chapters in which seminars and lectures will be held, namely Christian Presence and Witness, Ecumenical Dialogue and Existential Questions, and Vision and Future Perspectives. In this context, the Secretary-General of the World Council of Churches will come to Lebanon in late March, to participate in a seminar on ecumenism in the Middle East and the world and meet with the leaders of the churches residing in Lebanon. In addition, lecturers and forums in activities programmed in each country, in coordination with the MECC member churches, will address various topics under this second section, including four lectures by the Secretary-General on the major genocides in the Middle East.
The third section concerns information and audiovisual production. We are preparing to produce documentaries covering the various activities of the Council during its various historical stages, despite the difficulty of converting old tapes into documents that can be read by modern software, a work that Télé Lumière-Noursat has thankfully volunteered to do. In the same context, we launched a joint program with Télé Lumière, called “Ecumenicals- Maskouniyat”, dealing with the history and development of the ecumenical movement in the region, and the role of the Middle East Council of Churches in this process, through interviews with religious and secular authorities who played a leading role in the development of the ecumenical movement in our region. This program will become an on-going one within the network of programs of Tele Lumière. At the same time, in coordination with the same station, we will launch a weekly television news program on the activities of the Council and the ecumenical movement.
In the media context, we must mention here that we are launching new partnerships and proposing coordinating bodies between christian media institutions, such as the ATIME (Association of Theological Institutions in the Middle East) in the theological field, in order to put the light of Christianity at the highest places.
The fourth section consists of two basic activities. The first is the fifty years album, which presents the history of the Council during the past fifty years, and covers general assemblies and executive committees, resolutions, statements, and other information that is documented with pictures and texts, for the first half of the first hundred years of the Council, which is expected to continue its march for many decades to come. This is to carry out the tasks entrusted to it by the visionary founders, as well as modern leaders who renewed the vision and aspirations.
The second activity in this section is the MECC booklet. This document provides information about the establishment of the Council, its structure, and activities. It explains to the public and those interested what the Council is, both as an institution and as a community.
This is the general framework within which the activities of the fiftieth year will take place. It goes without saying that the work in the General Secretariat, departments, and sections will continue as usual. We have programmed things in a way that integrates this year’s activities automatically into normal daily work. We are preparing to launch new programs and projects in response to escalating needs as well as new partnerships with international institutions, whether ecumenical or secular. These institutions are turning to us more and more for partnership, given the credibility that the Council enjoys through the efforts of its team, which works tirelessly, and under the auspices of its leaders who support and frame this work.
The fiftieth year began in January 2024, with the week of prayer for unity. We have scheduled it to end in January 2025, with the beginning of the 1700th year of the Council of Nicaea. It is then that new activities related to this important occasion in the history of Christianity will begin.
In all this, in order to serve humanity in the name of the Savior, we ask for your blessings and support, so that the Lord may take care of us and help us to perform the best service.