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!

Continues Its Regional Program “Trauma Healing and Spiritual Counseling”

Spiritual and Psychological Support Sessions in an Ecumenical Framework

Stemming from its belief in the importance of spiritual and psychological support, the Theological and Ecumenical Department at the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) continues organizing its regional program " Trauma Healing and Spiritual Counseling." It held a new workshop between June 1 and 6, 2025, at the Monastery of Notre Dame du Puits in Beqanaya – Lebanon, in the presence of the MECC Associate Secretary General Reverend Dr. Refaat Fikry.

Participants were a group of Clergy, Nuns, lay people, and pastoral workers, representing various Church Families and countries of the Middle East such as Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, and Egypt. Noting that they had previously participated in national workshops organized in their countries as part of the same program, and are now trained to develop their capacities to provide support within their communities.

The workshop aimed to develop the participants' capacities regarding the concept of trauma and ways to heal it through pastoral ministry. It empowered them and provided them with the necessary skills to support others spiritually and psychologically in the face of the challenges imposed by the difficult circumstances casting a shadow over the region due to various crises.

As part of its human capacity building objectives, the Diakonia and Social Service Department, Lebanon’s Office, at the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), continues to implement its food security program with the participation of a group of Lebanese women in the villages of Hmayra, Ouwaynet, and Machta Hassan.

The three-year program includes several diverse sessions on how to properly produce mouneh and its necessary steps. It also covers marketing methods and its basics, as well as the importance of using social media for this purpose. The sessions also help participants overcome the challenges they may face in this field and give them the opportunity to participate in many exhibitions.

Hence, the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) is participating through this program in the Rachid Karami International Fair, where you can find the participants' products, from June 5 to 9, 2025, between 4 pm and 12 am, in Tripoli - Lebanon.

It is worth noting that this program is implemented with the support of the international organization Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

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.

Professor Michel Abs

The Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC)

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—we are now preparing to launch the Middle East Council of Churches’ 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.

Because a message that is not shared with people, so that it may affect their hearts and make them better human beings, able to treat their fellow humans well, is as if it never existed, the TV channel and radio station of the MECC, with the support of Tele Lumiere–Noursat and its dedicated leaders, and with the efforts of those who love God and want to spread His word, are now being launched.

Preparations for the launch have been completed. Next Monday, with the timing of the Pentecost, the MECC will hold a press conference 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.

It is noteworthy that all of this has been accomplished at “zero” cost, thanks to the support we have received from those concerned and the dedication of colleagues in the Communication and Media Unit—may God bless their efforts and service.

The programming network consists of four sections: regular programming, news, liturgy, and Christian education programs and documentaries.

These programs cover topics such as family, the history of the ecumenical movement in the region, interviews, church news, positions of church leaders, MECC news, masses, hymns, Christian education programs, and documentaries.

This is the initial program lineup which will be developed further as more content is produced and as suggestions come in from stakeholders…

On the Occasion of the Yearly Anniversary of His Enthronement as Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Holy See of Cilicia

On the occasion of the Yearly Anniversary of the Enthronement of His Holiness Catholicos Aram I as Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Holy See of Cilicia, the Secretary General Professor Michel Abs, on behalf of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) family, extends his warmest congratulations to His Holiness, who is Honorary President of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), wishing him continued health and success in his pastoral service as a faithful servant of the Church of Christ.

The Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) also raises its Prayers to God on the intention of His Holiness to bless his service, bestow His graces upon him, and grant him the power of the Holy Spirit to lead his Church to the salvation in the name of Jesus Christ, and to remain a model of love and endless giving in the field of the Lord, wishing him many years of goodness, blessing, and holiness.

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

“Strengthening Christian Faith Unity: The 1700th Jubilee Of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea”

The MECC Secretary General Professor Michel Abs: We must develop a new text… which includes a commitment to the Ecumenical contract, as a new form of spreading the Christian message

The President of the Romaian Cultural Society Professor Najib Jahshan: Carry the banner of the Cross as Constantine the Great did, and be assured that through it alone you will triumph

In commemoration of the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council, the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) and the Romaian Cultural Society held the Fifth Scientific Conference under the title “Strengthening Christian Faith Unity: The 1700th Jubilee Of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea”. It was presided over by the MECC Secretary General Professor Michel Abs, with the presence of the Society's President Professor Najib Jahshan, on Saturday, May 31, 2025, at the Liqaa Center, Rabweh - Lebanon.

The conference included four sessions attended by Priests, specialists from various fields, and official, cultural, intellectual, and social figures, as well as members of the Romaian Cultural Society and the Middle East Council of Churches’ team.

The event, which was broadcasted live on Télé Lumière and Noursat TV Channel, began with the Lebanese National Anthem and the Constantinople Anthem, followed by an opening speech delivered by the conference's host, the Journalist Lea Adel Maamary, the Head of the Media Committee at the Romaian Cultural Society, and the Media Officer and the Coordinator of the Church and Media Relations at MECC. She noted, "The seventeenth century witnessed the Council of Nicaea, a momentous event that brought together elite Christian Leaders from around the world to discuss a serious matter. It resolved doubt with certainty, blocking the path to heresies and the distortion of the right belief"…

MECC Organizes a Health Awareness and PSS Training for Deaf and Mute Women

In a first-of-its-kind initiative, MECC, through its Service and Relief Department – Diakonia, organized a health awareness and psychological support (PSS) training for deaf and mute women in Damascus.

Twenty-four women participated in the training which focused on delivering information through sign language using simplified methods that take into account their specific needs.

After the training, the participants visited five families that include deaf and mute individuals, where they shared the useful information they had received.

This initiative falls within the framework of efforts to effectively integrate deaf and mute women into society and to empower them by expanding the circle of beneficiaries and spreading awareness in the community.

One of the participating women, aged 30, said: “this was the first time ever she had attended a health awareness and PSS training tailored for the deaf and mute.”

"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.