wfn.org | WCC - Sharing good news in the Middle East

["Sheila Mesa" <smm@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches
Press Feature, Feat-02-09
For Immediate Use
17 July 2002

Sharing good news in the Middle East
Bob Scott

"We went to the Middle East in solidarity with the churches and
people of that region at a time when many Westerners are afraid
to go," said a participant in a seminar on "Sharing the Good News
in the Middle East" held in Aleppo, Syria, 
1-7 June 2002.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has strengthened its links
with the Middle East region through its work in Christian-Muslim
dialogue, within the Decade to Overcome Violence, and in relation
to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

This particular seminar, organized by the WCC Mission and
Evangelism team in cooperation with the Middle East Council of
Churches (MECC), was for study and discussion of biblical and
theological understandings of the relationship between evangelism
and mission.

"The seminar came at a very critical time when, every day, we
receive confusing news about violence in the Middle East, when
our young people are emigrating and emptying the area of
Christians and, consequently, of a Christian presence and
witness," said Huda Kandalaft, Christian education director of
the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon. 

"We went to underline the 'other side of the coin'; to share the
good news in the context of the violence and destruction in the
Middle East," said Rev. Carlos Ham of the WCC's Mission and
Evangelism team. Ham stressed that the seminar was not intended
to present a new theology on mission and evangelism, but rather
to support the local churches in their contextual mission and
work on evangelism. "One of the aims was to encourage local
churches to discover and explore new means and ways for their
evangelizing work in the region," he said. 

The thirty participants came from Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and
Egypt, and from four families of churches: the Eastern Orthodox
(Greek), Oriental Orthodox (Syrian, Coptic and Armenian),
Protestant and Evangelical, and Roman Catholic.

Razek Syriani, director of the MECC Unit on Education and
Renewal, said that "Ecumenical instruments such as the WCC and
MECC are the ones that local churches depend on to provide the
ecumenical environment for wider sharing."

The seminar is the second Mission and Evangelism  "School of
Evangelism" in this period. The first took place in Cuba,
December 2001 for the Caribbean churches. It is anticipated that
some participants from these and future "schools" will attend the
World Mission Conference in 2005. 

"The meeting in Aleppo came at a time of chaos, isolation,
social and economic disorder in the Middle East. It was a time to
affirm and confirm the Christian call for reconciliation, peace
and justice," said Kandalaft. "For us, every human being is a
holy temple for God, and we stand with every man and woman
regardless of their ethnic, cultural, social or religious
background. There is no holy shrine for Christians except the
human shrine," he concluded.

Bob Scott is a communication officer in the WCC Public
Information Team.

For further information, please contact Media Relations Office, 
 tel: +41 (0)22 791 64 21

**********
The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a fellowship of churches,
now 342, in more than 100 countries in all continents from
virtually all Christian traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is
not a member church but works cooperatively with the WCC. The
highest governing body is the assembly, which meets approximately
every seven years. The WCC was formally inaugurated in 1948 in
Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Its staff is headed by general
secretary Konrad Raiser from the Evangelical Church in Germany.

World Council of Churches
Media Relations Office
Tel: (41 22) 791 6153 / 791 6421
Fax: (41 22) 798 1346
E-mail: smm@wcc-coe.org 
Web: www.wcc-coe.org 

PO Box 2100
1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland