Celebrating the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
The MECC Unit on Faith and Unity organized the week of prayer that extended from January 18-25, 2007. It was marked by the many events organized in the different countries of the Middle East region.
The Unit habitually translates into Arabic the international common text proposed by the WCC and the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity and adapts it to the special conditions in the Middle East. This year prayer booklets were published (10 000 copies of 46 pages) along with colored posters (2000) and cards with a prayer for Unity (160 000). These were widely distributed to Churches and related institutions. The Uni t cooperated with local churches in organizing the inaugural celebrations of the Week of Prayer in Egypt, Syria and Lebanon.
In Lebanon, the inaugural ecumenical celebration was held in the Syrian orthodox Cathedral in Beirut, on January 18, 2007. A concert was held jointly with ATIME at the end of the week in the Chapel of the Pontifical Faculty of Theology in the Kaslik Holy Spirit University, in Jounieh. A panel discussion on the ecumenical movement and spirituality was aired live on the local TV Channel Ttélélumière/Noursat, and two lectures were delivered by the Unit director in the Jesuit ³College Notre Dame de Jamhour², in Zouk for a group of young people.
In Egypt, the local committee celebrated the Week of Prayer from January 22 to 30, 2007, inaugurated in the Greek Orthodox Church of the Madonna (Heliopolis) with a solemn prayer attended by all church leaders. It was a major event that bestowed on this week the importance it deserves, remindin g Christians of the necessity of prayer and work for the fulfillment of God¹s dearest wish. The daily ecumenical celebrations were held in a different tradition.
In Syria, churches in different regions of Syria celebrated the week of prayer for Christian from January 18-25, 2007, in Aleppo, Hassake, Homs, Lattakia and Damascus. Celebrations and activities reached out to various categories of the community of faithful, especially young men and women. in Aleppo the inauguration took place in the Church of the Holy Cross, in the Armenian Catholic Cathedral, on January 22, 2007, and the ecumenical meetin g with youth from different Churches, in Saint Elias Greek Orthodox Church, o n January 26, 2007. In Homs, ecumenical celebrations gathered clergy and lay from the various Churches, in the Evangelical Church, on January 26, 2007.
In Jordan, and for the first time for many years now, the Unit succeeded in organizing on January 23, a common ecumenical celebration held at the Sacre d Heart of Jesus Latin Church in Amman. In addition to an important number of clergy attending, 700 Christians from different denominations prayed together on that occasion. Different satellite channels ensured wide media coverage.
Middle East Council of Churches Office of International Ecumenical Relations P.O. Box 5376, Beirut, Lebanon
Guirgis Ibrahim Saleh, General Secretary
mecc@cyberia.net.lb or guirgissaleh@cyberia.net.lb
+961-1-353-938 http://www.mec-churches.org/