Two Editorials

1- The Talents

2- To the Second Era of MECC's Journey

The Talents

The Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) Dr. Michel E. Abs delivered this speech before presenting his detailed report about his work during the past four years, at the extraordinary meeting held by the MECC Executive Committee, chaired by the MECC Presidents, to elect a Secretary General of the Council, on Friday 30 August 2024, at the Greek Orthodox Patriarchal Monastery of Our Lady of Balamand and Saint John of Damascus Theological Seminary in Lebanon.

Dr. Michel E. Abs

Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC)

A non-technical introduction

The day H.B. Patriarch Youhanna X honored me by nominating me for election, for the duty of ecumenical servant, with the grade of Secretary General, I was fully aware of the responsibility that I have to carry on my shoulders, as I knew quite well the pulse of the MECC, dear to my heart as is the case of everyone who worked in it or dealt with it.

I got acquainted with the MECC in 1980, while writing my first doctoral dissertation on the Syriac churches, when one of its departments provided me with some of the documents and information available to them. Afterwards, they assigned to me to visit the city of Zahle after the bloody events of 1981, and to write a report on its needs following the destruction that befell it. This task was followed by two additional tasks, the first was to write development projects for the Assyrians in Baouchrieh and Hadath, and the second to study the 33 Assyrian villages located on the banks of the Khabur River in the northern Antiochian Levant and write development projects for them.

Accordingly, I was offered to become director of the Emergency Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction (ERR) Program in Lebanon, which I managed and supervised the growth from 1982 until 1990. I started with two employees and left it with dozens of programs and projects and more than 125 employees, in addition to several properties that we had acquired during these years. There has been a furious race between the systematic destruction to which Lebanon has been subjected, and the relief and development that we were doing as a committed and competent team. The synergy between the Committee of Churches, the ERR team, and the churches was exemplary and effective, and it yielded fruits that astonished the donor agencies that renewed their confidence year after year. The annual budget of the program at that time reached about five million dollars, between cash aid and in-kind aid, which crowded the seven warehouses that were mostly provided to us by the churches.

After the election session in Bkerke on September 18, 2020, and in the utmost trust of the honorable MECC Executive Committee, His Beatitude made two recommendations to me, the first was to “perform well,” and the second was to “let your work be ecumenically oriented, as you are today’s servant of the churches together.” My Orthodox Church of Antioch included.

His Beatitude and the Executive Committee entrusted me with talents the value of which I was fully aware as well the gravity of what I am about to start, because I am fully aware of the seriousness of the MECC, and its position within the global ecumenical system, and it is the most distinguished regional ecumenical organization in the world, because it is the council of the region of the emergence of Christianity, in Palestine, and the region of crystallization of Christian identity, in Antioch, where the Christians were first called Christians, and the region where the suffering of a people has been taking place for more than three-quarters of a century, as part of a crucial issue resulting from a historical conspiracy, called the Palestinian issue.

I was fully aware of the MECC’s programmatic, administrative and financial status, as His Beatitude had nominated me to the Executive Committee since 2016, which in turn elected me as Treasurer in 2017, and since 2018 I had become a member of the strategic support group that the Executive Committee had formed to support my predecessor in her work.

I assumed my duties at a critical stage, both nationally and globally. On the national level, Lebanon had been shaken more than a month ago by the Beirut port blast, and the banking crisis there was at its peak, coupled with massive political chaos, and war was striking many regions of Syria and Iraq, and terrorism was wreaking havoc on the land, sweeping through areas and destroying cities and villages of the Antiochian Levant, in addition to the siege of Syria and the ongoing devastation in Palestine. As for the rest of the Middle Eastern countries, Egypt, Jordan, and Cyprus, they were, thank God, stable.

At the global level, the pandemic was sweeping the world, paralyzing life, and this prevented the holding of the Twelfth General Assembly at that time, so the Executive Committee was forced to take the necessary measures, in accordance with the provisions of the MECC Constitution and Bylaws, and I was elected Secretary General of the Council for the period extending from the first of October. 2020 until the end of September 2024.

After this introduction, I will present to you my work and achievements, and the Council’s achievements for the past four years. The presentation will include the following sections:

- The methodology in approaching the work of the MECC

- The Contextual analysis for the four-year period

- The work and achievements at the level of the General Secretariat are part of the aspirations and strategic orientations of the MECC

- A summary of the achievements of the MECC’s departments and divisions and their status

- Future aspirations considering current challenges

The presentation will be based on an English text placed on PowerPoint, while the explanation will be in Arabic. My point in this matter is that we want to deliver the message to the non-Arabic speaking members of the Executive Committee, and this facilitates the work of translators. Moreover, the report shall be shared with international colleagues, partners in our work and endeavors, in addition to the fact that we all speak English, and the presentation in Arabic makes the information Easy to access.

In this blessed spiritual and educational place, on this Balamand Hill - as His Beatitude calls it - which witnessed, days ago, the arrival of the relics of Saint John Chrysostomos and Saint Panteleimon, and which not long ago witnessed the canonization of Saints Nicholas and Habib Khasha of Damascus, this hill which contains many blessings, and which is close to the birthplace of canonized  Patriarch Estephan Al-Douwaihi, we gather in order to see the harvest of four years of ecumenical struggle, the struggle within ecumenism, and the struggle for ecumenism, with a hope for a better tomorrow for the church in its cradle.

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To the Second Era of the MECC’s Journey

The Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) Dr. Michel E. Abs delivered this speech following his re-election as MECC Secretary General for a second four-year term, during the extraordinary meeting held by the MECC Executive Committee, chaired by the MECC Presidents, to elect a Secretary General of the Council, on Friday 30 August 2024, at the Greek Orthodox Patriarchal Monastery of Our Lady of Balamand and Saint John of Damascus Theological Seminary in Lebanon.

Dr. Michel E. Abs

Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC)

Once again, His Beatitude Patriarch Youhanna X has honored me with his confidence, nominating me for a second term of ecumenical service as Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches. The Churches, represented by the Executive Committee, have also responded to His Beatitude's nomination, placing their trust in me for the next four years. Over the past two years, I have worked closely with their esteemed members, who have experienced my approach and methodology, just as I have come to understand their vision. Together, we have engaged in a positive and collaborative journey, learning through shared experiences and facing common challenges against the forces of evil represented by those who promote division, discrimination, ostracism, hypocrisy, and other scourges of our troubling times.

We are now entering the second half of the first century of the MECC's life, a journey intended to continue indefinitely, bearing witness to the unity of the Churches and the renewal of their structures and institutions in service to humanity, guided by the teachings of our Master. Each stage brings its own unique characteristics, components, and challenges, and the key lesson is that the institution must be resilient in confronting these challenges and persevering despite the forces of harm and evil.

The Middle East Council of Churches, which has been tried and tested over decades, was founded on principles of flexibility, openness, and interaction with the various components of our environment—be they religious, cultural, political, economic, or otherwise—each posing its own challenges by nature.

Whether by coincidence or divine providence, I find myself serving through the Orthodox family at this particular stage, with their unanimous agreement to nominate me for the General Secretariat. I am deeply grateful for this divine dispensation, recognized by His Beatitude and the beloved family, allowing me the opportunity to contribute my knowledge and experience to the institution in which I matured and to which I have felt a deep sense of belonging even before my formal involvement. This institution embodies the Christianity I was raised in, shaped by a rare quality of Teachers at the Annunciation Orthodox School, the jewel of Beirut's schools at that time.

Here, I pause to emphasize that the best way to embody, sustain, and deepen our faith is through education—primarily through our schools and, of course, our universities.

I must also mention Saint Joseph University, where I built my knowledge and understanding, and whose values and methodologies I have embraced since I began as a student there in 1973. University is, without a doubt, the ideal place to prepare young people for social and professional life, guiding them toward an optimal existence. I also wish to commend the significant strides made by the University of Balamand, which I accompanied in the early stages of its inception in the late 1980s when it was still just an idea. It is not a coincidence that the best universities in the region are church universities.

Our schools, universities, medical institutions, and media outlets, along with all other institutions founded by the Christian faith and institutionalized by the Church, are gifts from the Lord to society, enabling a better life for all.

As for the Council, which stands as a unifying force for the Church of the Incarnate, it is called to be a means of interaction—not only among the Churches at the level of their leaders and congregations but also among their institutions, to the fullest extent possible.

Our vision for the future is clear, and we will crystallize it through a series of activities, some of which are already underway, some in preparation, and others in development. In this context, we view the Council as both a repository of knowledge and a forward-looking entity.

This beehive of activity, known as the Middle East Council of Churches, where the team never rests and the achievements far exceed their number, will honor the expectations of those who founded it half a century ago, and by its leaders who guide its course with the firm belief that we are the incorruptible salt of the earth and the yeast of goodness in a world that has gone astray.

I extend my gratitude to the Church leaders who consistently provide us with the support and guidance we need, to the Presidents of the Council and its Executive Committee for their continued engagement with our work despite their many obligations, and to my colleagues who excel in all that they do.

See you in the workplace, as we continue to open windows of hope for humanity.