St Egidio Community in Rome organized a conference on the theme: ³Christian s in the Middle East between their Future, Tradition and Islam². The founder of the Community Dr Andrea Ricardi stressed in his opening speech on the importance of supporting the ?Christian presence in the Middle East¹. He stated that the ?Eastern Christians are the origin and the roots of Christianity. They relate the Church in the West with its origin. Christianity was born in the East and spread to the West and from there to the rest of the world¹. The conference, which lasted for two days (20 21 February) aimed at shedding the lights on the situation of Christians in th e Middle East, which is somehow forgotten by the Europeans and the Westerns i n general, and to strengthen the relationships and solidarity with them. Several Eminent clergies and lay speakers from the Middle East presented their input regarding the situations of Christians in the Middle East. For further information: www.stegidio.org <http://www.stegidio.org
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/