Ramadan: One of the Shared Religious Spaces
Professor Michel Abs
The Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC)
The Ramadan fast began yesterday, coinciding with the Lent season for churches that follow the Western calendar. Those engaged in dialogue and advocates for social cohesion have focused on this coincidence, which often occurs, and have considered it a divine sign to call for solidarity among believers of all religions, or a temporal sign guiding us toward social cohesion, which is periodically shaken due to sectarian conflicts.
Moreover, some have gone further by creating a card that carries symbols of both Christianity and Islam, along with wishes for a blessed fast for followers of both celestial religions.
What matters to us, those working in dialogue and social cohesion, and in connection with shared religious spaces, is to show how the entire society, across all its segments, has adopted the Ramadan fast as a tradition that transcends religion or sect. This blessed religious occasion, which is primarily about self-discipline, reflection, repentance, and giving, has become a moment to bring people together around the tables of the Merciful, confirming community unity through the respect for and sharing of each other’s religious traditions.
The majority of people, regardless of their religious affiliations, live the Ramadan experience. Some invite others to Iftar, while some are invited. They exchange social talks, and many focus on the essence of religion, faith, and fasting, sometimes even comparing fasting between religions. Furthermore, if Iftar is hosted in social institutions, the speeches delivered carry significant values and aspirations, more and more revealing how the social values we live by, which are fundamentally based on religion, are so closely aligned that you would think they come from one single faith.
It is worth noting that many Christian leaders are the ones hosting Ramadan Iftars in honor of their Muslim friends and loved ones, expressing unity in life.
In this context, Ramadan becomes a comprehensive social occasion, a national ceremony that unites hearts and supports social cohesion. This is what we mean at the Middle East Council of Churches when we talk about "shared religious spaces" in our region, which we see as clear and unmistakable.
The time of Ramadan, followed by Eid al-Fitr, is part of these shared spaces that we aim to highlight through the MECC’s programs dedicated to this cause. Thus, we fulfill a fundamental value of the ecumenical movement in the Middle East: dialogue and civil peace.
The shared Ramadan life is no different from the Annunciation feast, the place of refuge of the Holy Family in Egypt, Our Lady of Saydnaya in Syria, the Baptism site in Jordan, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. All these are common grounds for all the people of our countries and a foundation for social unity based on religious faith, which is a matter of mutual respect.
We, at MECC, are finalizing this program, which aims to highlight the great common ground among the people of these lands, the Antiochian Levant and the Nile Valley, and to raise awareness about it as a means for fellowship and solidarity.
The Lord has instructed us to be one. We are one in our religious and social unity, and we are the light that shines for all in the house, so they do not go astray.