La Iglesia se prepara para la fiesta de las fiestas, ¿estamos ya preparados?

Pocos días y los cristianos comenzarán una temporada que se considera una de las estaciones cristianas más santas de la historia. Es el Ciclo de la Santa Cuaresma, el camino seguro hacia la Fiesta de la Resurrección, la Fiesta de las fiestas y el Tiempo Santo. Por lo tanto, la Cuaresma es un tiempo de renovación espiritual y un viaje durante el cual el hombre pasa del peligro a la seguridad, del pecado a la salvación y de la ansiedad a la satisfacción.

Los cristianos se preparan para su viaje cuaresmal siguiendo el camino de Jesucristo, que fue conducido, justo después de su bautismo, por el Espíritu Santo al desierto, donde ayunó durante 40 días y venció a Satanás.

The new issue of the weekly newsletter Momentum issued by the Communication and Public Relations Department of the Middle East Council of Churches presents the message of the MECC Secretary General Dr. Michel Abs, entitled this week “Human Folly”.

The issue also includes a news about the ATIME meeting aiming at continuing its work on its bylaws. In addition to details on the launching of the Season of Creation 2022 and its theme for this year.

The Church is Preparing for the Feast of Feasts, Are we ready yet?

Few days and Christians will start a season that is considered one of the holiest Christian stations in history. It is the season of Holy Lent, the safe path towards the Feast of the Resurrection, the feast of feasts and the Holy Season. Hence, the Lent is a time of spiritual renewal and a journey during which Man passes from danger to safety, sin to salvation, and anxiety to contentment.

Christians prepare for their Lenten Journey following the path of Jesus Christ who was led, just after his baptism, by the Holy Spirit into the desert where he fasted for 40 days and defeated Satan.

Las crisis sociales se intensifican en gravedad, y con ellas aumentan los índices de pobreza, desempleo, delincuencia, ruptura familiar y desintegración social. Y a medida que la sociedad se vuelve incapaz de gestionar sus crisis, se vuelve vulnerable a todas las formas de conflictos e intervenciones externas, con lo que pierde su autonomía y se ve abocada al camino de la decadencia.

No hay límites para la codicia humana, como tampoco los hay para la estupidez humana resultante de esta codicia. Cuando los responsables de los recursos de las sociedades acumulan riquezas hasta el punto de ser incapaces de gestionarlas, en un momento en que algunos grupos de las mismas sociedades carecen de las necesidades mínimas de una vida digna, se llega a un estado de aberración incontrolada.

Social crises intensify in severity, and with them the rates of poverty, unemployment, crime, family rupture and social disintegration rise. And as society becomes unable to manage its crises, it gets vulnerable to all forms of conflicts and external interventions, thus losing its autonomy and is misled into the path of decay.

There are no limits to human greed, just as there are no limits to human stupidness resulting from this greed. When those in charge of the resources of societies accumulate wealth to the extent that they become unable to manage them, at a time when some groups of the same societies lack the minimum necessities of a decent life leads to a state of uncontrolled aberration.

“Listen to the Voice of Creation”

In response to the call of creation groaning due to human violations, the ecumenical family around the world is preparing to celebrate once again the annual season of creation, which has been launched this year in an online international event held today by the organization of the Laudato Si’ Movement, in the presence of leaders of the different Ecumenical Churches and the participation of Christians concerned by this global issue.

The Association of Theological Institutes in the Middle East (ATIME) held, on Tuesday morning, February 22, 2022, an online meeting that gathered the deans of the faculties and institutes and their representatives from Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. It was attended by members of the Executive Secretariat and the Director of the MECC theological and Ecumenical Department Father Antoine Al Ahmar.

The meeting was presided by the President of the Association, and Dean of the Faculty of Religious and Theological Sciences at Université La Sagesse in Beirut Father Tanios Khalil, and moderated by Father Dr. Mikhael Kanbar, ATIME Executive Secretary.

The Communication and Public Relations Department at the Middle East Council of Churches have now issued its online Ecumenical calendar for the month of March 2022. 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. Noting that the remaining months of the year will be published consecutively.

You can find a video about the MECC activities in support of Iraqi refugees in Syria since the beginning of the war in Iraq until the end of 2011, with the support of the MECC’s partners and local Churches in Syria. The video was presented during the Council’s 10th General Assembly, held between 29 and 30 November 2011 in Paphos, Cyprus, under the title of “And all who believed were one heart” (Acts 4: 32).

The new issue of the weekly newsletter Momentum issued by the Communication and Public Relations Department of the Middle East Council of Churches presents the final statement of the MECC Executive Committee meeting held online on February 11, 2022. As for the weekly message of the MECC Secretary General Dr. Michel Abs, it was entitled “Social Justice and the Misery of Humanity”.