Nilesat: 11096

S.R: 27500

Pol: Horizontal

By the Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) Professor Michel Abs

“Momentum”

6-6-2025

This issue includes reports, videos, news, articles, and a full coverage of the latest developments in the activities of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), as well as the Church, Ecumenical, and social events…

This is in addition to the weekly word of the MECC Secretary General Professor Michel Abs which is entitled in this issue “Toward a New Era in Ecumenical Media”.

In this context, the MECC invites you, in the issue, to a press conference to launch its TV Channel and Radio Station, which will be the voice of the Ecumenical movement and a unifying platform for the various Church Families in the region. It will be held on Monday, June 9, 2025, at 1:00 pm Beirut time, at the "Platform of the Word”, at the offices of the MECC General Secretariat in Beirut.

You can check the issue via the following link: https://mailchi.mp/eb3c99762fe6/momentum-mecc-weekly-newsletter.

To Launch its TV Channel and Radio Station

Monday, June 9, 2025

As we celebrate the blessed Feast of Pentecost, the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) invites you to a press conference to launch its TV Channel and Radio Station, which will be the voice of the Ecumenical movement and a unifying platform for the various Church Families in the region.

The conference will be held on Monday, June 9, 2025, at 1:00 pm Beirut time, at the "Platform of the Word”, at the offices of the MECC General Secretariat in Beirut.

Soon in the Ecumenical World!

In a new Ecumenical media initiative, the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), and with great joy, is launching a television channel and radio station, which will be the voice of the Ecumenical movement and of the Churches committed to this mission in the region.

This project comes after equipping the production center and establishing the “Manbar Al-Kalima” platform at the Middle East Council of Churches, and launching their operations, and after gathering the Council’s audiovisual archives—a collection of fifty years of work.

The programming network consists of four sections: regular programming, news, liturgy, and Christian education programs and documentaries. The production will also focus on various current Church, Ecumenical, social, and humanitarian events and issues.

In his word for the occasion, the Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches Professor Michel Abs, said: " This channel speaks in the name of the Son of Man, and thus the intellectual challenge it faces is great, because it speaks the truth—and in our days, truth is a heavy burden. May the Lord bless those who carry it."

As we celebrate Pentecost, and after completing the launch preparations, the MECC will hold a press conference on next Monday, at 1pm Beirut Time, to announce the start of broadcasting, which in the first stage will be limited to a few hours a day—recurrent several times daily—until it becomes continuous 24-hour broadcasting.

Stay tuned for this new Ecumenical production!

The Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) have now issued its online Ecumenical calendar for the month of June 2025. It includes the Ecclesiastical and Liturgical Feasts of the various Families of Churches in the Middle East. In addition to international days identified by the United Nations, and which are related to the MECC identity and its spiritual and human mission.

Media of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC)

It is the day of the founding and birth of the Church, the day on which it was entrusted with its mission: a community of missionaries and witnesses. The disciples accepted the word of the Lord with great joy to preach it around the world in one language, the language of God... It is the day of Pentecost, the memory of the coming of the Holy Spirit on the apostles who were gathered with the Mother of God in Zion, Jerusalem, following the ascension of Jesus Christ into the heart of the Heavenly Father. It is the celebration of renewal that guides man from darkness and sin to light and chastity. This divine light was mentioned in the Bible of John in chapter 8:12: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”

Church families celebrate this divine event fifty days after Easter, each according to its rite and belief. According to Acts 2: 1-11 "And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim…" With the Pentecost, the Church ends the third stage of the New Testament. The first would be the stage from the Annunciation to the Cross, the second, from the Cross to the Resurrection, and the third, from the Resurrection through the Ascension to the Pentecost.

An Episode Within the "Community Knowledge" Series

An Episode Within the "Community Knowledge" Series

Organizes a Regional Workshop as Part of the of the “Trauma Healing and Spiritual Counseling” Program

The Secretary General Professor Michel Abs Visits the Participants and Supports Them

"Where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son” (Matthew 2: 15).

On the Feast of the Holy Family’s Entry into Egypt, let us proclaim together with one heart: “O Holy Family of Nazareth, who lived a silent life, and suffered from poverty, persecution and displacement, help our families to faithfully carry out their responsibilities, overcome with faith the life’s troubles and hardships, care generously for the needs of others, and fulfill God’s will with joy. O Holy Family of Nazareth support our families and guide them towards the path of holiness, and help live them with love, unity and fidelity in the heart of the world” (Prayer to the Holy Family).

From the Coptic Orthodox Church to the Whole World

Do You Know What Path the Family Took?

Media of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC)

"Behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you..." (Matthew 2:13). With this verse, Matthew the Evangelist revealed in the second Chapter the Holy Family’s refuge to the land of Egypt, an escape to this eastern country holding a historic, geographic and cultural importance, according to His Holiness Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of Mark Tawadros II. But why fleeing? What is the path the family has taken?

Matthew the Evangelist mentions the reason for Jesus’ fleet to Egypt in the same chapter and the same verse, when he said, “Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him” (Matthew 2:13). This boy, whose almost suffered the same fate as the rest of the children of Bethlehem who were killed by King Herod after his failure to destroy Jesus through the Magi, for “having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their country by another way.” (Matthew 2:12)

Joseph obeyed the angel and took his family to escape from Herod's tyranny to the land of Egypt, despite the hardships and dangers of travel at that time; The entry of the Holy Family to this country became a celebration of the Coptic Orthodox Church with the Fraihi rite on the 24th of the month of Bashans of the Egyptian calendar or the first of June of each year, as celebrated in the first centuries AD.

A Blessing for the Country and a Source of Spiritual and Human Values