A Webinar Organized by MECC

Secretary General Dr. Michel Abs: We dream of a day when we will feel human dignity in everything we do, and not in burdens that accompany and stick to our daily lives. The wait has been long!

You can find the video of the webinar and some photos at the end of the text.

The Middle East Council of Churches is continuing its series of monthly seminars, and held a new webinar entitled “Youth, Family, and Preserving Human Dignity,” on Thursday 27 June 2024, with the participation of researchers and specialists from various fields and countries in the Middle East, and the presence of professors and university students, as well as interested people in the topic at hand. Noting that this webinar comes within the framework of the “Human Dignity Project” - “Dialogue and Social Cohesion-Social Capital Rehabilitation”, which MECC is implementing consecutively.

The meeting, which was broadcasted live on the MECC Facebook page, included three interventions, moderated by Dr. Laure Abi Khalil, who presented in her opening speech a definition of the family, explaining the challenges it faces, and stressing the necessity of preserving the factors that contribute to the success of the family and thus building better societies.

The webinar began with a speech delivered by the Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) Dr. Michel Abs, entitled “Building a Family in My Country, an “Adventure” with Unexpected Results,” in which he pointed out that “the crisis of building a family in my country and the immigration that accompanies it is the tip of the iceberg for a political-economic-social system in crisis, for a society that is fed up with its children and has begun to throw them into all parts of the world. Building a family is a basic and obvious human right. The Master said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).”

He added, "Whoever prevents the young generation in my country from forming a family is the one who came to steal, slaughter, and destroy, and he is the one who prevents them from having a better life, both materially and spiritually. My pride in a person from my country who has accomplished a great achievement abroad is incomparable to my pride in a person from my country who has accomplished this achievement on its land and among its parents and people. We dream of a day when we will feel human dignity in everything we do, and not in burdens that accompany and stick to our daily lives. The wait has been long!

The first intervention was entitled “Youth and the Family in the Face of the Challenges of the Contemporary World,” with Dr. Therese Seif, Professor of Socio Anthropology at the Lebanese University and Director of the Second Branch of the Institute of Social Sciences (Lebanon). In her intervention, Dr. Seif talked about the conditions that the youth in Lebanon are passing through and their relationships with their families amid daily challenges, with a socio-anthropological approach, explaining all of the concepts of family and youth, the contemporary world, and social change.

The second intervention was entitled “Family Problems: the Most Important Types and the Fastest Ways to Solve It,” with Prof. Dr. Magdy Ishak, Professor at the Faculty of Medicine at Cairo University, Consultant in Internal Medicine and Neurology, Consultant in Counseling Psychological and Family Medicine (Egypt). In his intervention, Prof. Dr. Ishak mentioned the solutions that may contribute to avoiding family problems, in addition to the proper actions that spouses must follow in order to build a good relationship.

The third intervention was entitled “The Psychological and Spiritual Challenges Facing Young People in Forming a Family,” with the recluse Deacon Chrysanthos Snawbar, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Jordan (Jordan). In his intervention, Deacon Snawbar highlighted the concept of youth based on the Holy Bible, as well as their spiritual challenges, talking about the relationship between spouses from a spiritual perspective, and explaining the dimensions of family disintegration in order to avoid this problem.

The webinar ended with a question and discussion session among the participants, where they exchanged opinions and experiences, each according to his and her specialty and field of work.