6-9 November 2012
Patriarch Gregorios III visited Great Britain in the context of a European tour to promote the work of the Liqaa dialogue centre in Lebanon.
Arriving on 6 November from Paris, where he had given a talk on the Liqaa Center at St Julien-le-Pauvre on 5 November, His Beatitude went directly to Heythrop College, University of London to speak on the topic The Melkite Church: living with and for others, with particular reference to Muslim-Christian dialogue and the work of the Liqaa Center, Lebanon.
Al-Liqa’ Center was first was founded in Palestine in 1983 with Muslim and Christian university professors when His Beatitude was Patriarchal Vicar in Jerusalem; in 2011 the Liqaa Center was founded in Lebanon, thanks largely to the generosity of His Majesty, Sultan Qaboos bin Said al-Said of Oman, and began its activities in 2012.
The Director of the Centre for Eastern Christianity at Heythrop College, Mr Anthony O’Mahony, who introduced His Beatitude to the audience, later expressed a lively interest in following up His Beatitude’s invitation to Heythrop College to plan joint conferences with the Liqaa Center and to arrange student exchanges in future years.
His Beatitude’s talk included a presentation of himself and his role, the history and current role of the Melkite Church as “Church of the Arabs, Church of Islam” and the role of the centre as a place for meeting, dialogue and interfaith activities. Afterwards Patriarch Gregorios III answered questions on a wide range of topics from the audience, which numbered about one hundred persons from a variety of academic and ecclesial backgrounds. These exchanges on the current situation in the Middle East, especially in Syria, were reported in the Catholic weekly newspaper The Tablet, by Liz Dodd, who attended the talk and discussion.
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Gregorios III: The Melkite Family in Europe under the Spirit’s breath
His Beatitude Gregorios III, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, of Alexandria and of Jerusalem concluded the first assembly of European Melkites which was held from 1st to 3rd November 2012 in Saint Stephen’s convent at Aubazine in Corrèze (France) owned by the Patriarchate.
If the main theme of the meeting that drew the representatives of the parishes of Paris, Marseilles, Aubazine, Vienna, Brussels, Stockholm, Rome,… without forgetting those who came from Spain or elsewhere was “Being Melkite in Europe: being rooted in Faith and Tradition” the discussions were noteworthy for their continual concern for Melkite Christian identity in the context of secularised societies that leave no room for Christian faith and values. Right from the early meetings the emphasis of each of the presentations made by the parishes was the place held by the Divine Liturgy in parish and community life.
The Divine Liturgy feeds.
The Divine Liturgy teaches.
The Divine Liturgy brings together.
A common point of all Melkite Greek Catholic communities in Europe is territorial dispersal. All priests present - Fr. Charbel Maalouf B.C. (Paris), Fr. Antoine Forget (Marseilles), Fr. Miled Jawich B.S. (Brussels), Fr. Hanna Ghnaim (Vienna), Fr. Ghattas (Stockholm), Fr. Fadi Rahi (representing the parish of Rome), Hieromonk Elisée (Aubazine) - emphasised and repeated that the parish is only rarely the territorial parish of the faithful. It is a personal parish and it is quite common to have parishioners who do not shrink from driving for over an hour to attend the Divine Liturgy.
So the Sunday Divine Liturgy becomes the means of gathering the parishioners who meet after the service over coffee and drinks. Often a picnic snack can bring the faithful together around their pastor.
Gregorios III emphasised the obligation of keeping strictly to the rite and respecting the translations, into English, French and Spanish of the Divine Liturgy, approved by the commission that emerged from the meeting of bishops of the diaspora.
The wide scattering of the faithful was the starting point for one of the main resolutions of the Assembly: drawing up files on parishioners in order to remain in constant contact by mailings, so that, for example, parish leaflets could reach everyone who had not been able to come to the Sunday service.
The second assembly of European Melkites will be held in Paris in 2014 on the theme of “Emigration and Melkite Identity” which follows on naturally from the discussions of the Aubazine assembly. Archimandrite Sharbel Maalouf B.C., priest of Saint Julien-le-Pauvre, was given the responsibility for setting up a committee to follow up on the resolutions of the first assembly and organising that of 2014.
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - "That the Year of Faith may be for Syria the Year of Reconciliation is the hope of Christians and all the Syrian people," is what the Melkite Patriarch of Antioch, Gregorios III, now in the Vatican to attend the Synod on the New Evangelization declares in an interview with Fides, on the eve of the opening of the Year of Faith. "We Christians in the Middle East,” explains Gregorios III, head of the Greek Catholic community which in Syria has over 150 thousand faithful – “feel an integral part of the Arab world and in this moment of difficulty, problems and fear, we have greater need to strengthen our faith, to be bearers of the Gospel. The presentation of the values of faith, made in the Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Medio Oriente is very important: it is up to us to make this our heritage – constituted by religious freedom, coexistence, citizenship, rights, solidarity and love. We Christians have always played a key role in the Middle East in culture, art, education and social work, and intend to continue to be leaven in society." The proposal of reconciliation in Syria is a direct expression of faith, for the Patriarch. "Reconciliation,” he warns, “is the only possible way forward: otherwise Syria heads towards death. In the ongoing conflict in Syria, chaos prevails and there are no appropriate answers. No one has any: neither the government nor the opposition, nor even the international community. We are in the dark and, in this situation, faith is the answer and reconciliation is our proposal." In such a state of political stalemate, the Patriarch supports the proposal of a "new diplomatic initiative to implement the Pope's appeals", released yesterday by Fides Agency, by Mar Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim, Metropolitan Syrian Orthodox of Aleppo. "We welcome any initiative that promotes reconciliation: the word reconciliation,” notes Gregorios III, “has been a constant, it has always been present in every even small intervention of the Holy Father in his last trip to Lebanon. Reconciliation is the lifeline for Syria and the future of Christians who, as St. Paul says, are 'all things to all men.’ The Church is not for or against the regime, but it is a community that wants to give a testimony of love and wants to save Syria." The Melkite Patriarch refers, finally, his own special initiative: "I asked the President of Lebanon, Michel Suleiman, to send the Holy Father’s speeches, from the recent trip to Lebanon, to the leaders of the Arab world as a message of peace and coexistence that radiates from Lebanon throughout the Middle East. This is the response to the Arab revolutions. And the president has welcomed my proposal." (PA) (Agenzia Fides 09/10/2012)
Adapted from and with acknowledgments to: http://www.news.va/en/news/asiasyria-patriarch-gregory-iii-may-the-year-of-fa
By Deborah Gyapong
Catholic News Service
SAINTE-ADELE, Quebec (CNS) -- Western secularism underlies the worldwide economic crisis and challenges the future of Ukraine, the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church told Canada's bishops.
"The current economic crisis is merely the symptom of a much deeper spiritual and cultural crisis," Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk told the annual plenary of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops Sept. 25. "As Western society rejects old moral structures and values, it finds that its moral GPS has no fixed and stationary points of reference."
Archbishop Shevchuk said the church must find "new courage" to proclaim the truth of the Gospel to contemporary society to provide "an anchor and compass."
"We live in societies where virtue and goodness are frequently a veneer for religious intolerance, personal gratification and moral decay," he said. "Secularism would like us to be closed in a little box of Sunday worship."
The former Soviet Union used that approach to religion, he said.
Click here to read the whole article at the Catholic News Service.
“Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God”
Rabweh 20 September 2012
The day after the Holy Father’s visit to Lebanon, which was a constantly reiterated call for peace – “‘My peace I give unto you’” was Benedict XVI’s constant theme – His Beatitude Gregorios III, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, of Alexandria and Jerusalem tenaciously pursued his efforts and appeals for a cessation of hostilities in Syria, so opening the path to reconciliation.
Following his 27 August letter For Syria, reconciliation is the only lifeline, addressed to the Pope, cardinals, episcopal conferences, rulers and heads of state and all persons of good will, on Thursday 20 September Gregorios III received representatives of Austria, Belgium, Czechia, France, Germany, Greece and Poland, as well as a representative of Canada, in the patriarchal residence of Rabweh (Lebanon). The conversation and discussions focused on assessing the situation on the ground and means of clearing the path to reconciliation “… that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.” (John 11: 52).
The Patriarch recalled the very terms of his For Syria, reconciliation is the only lifeline, saying: “We believe the role of the Church in Syria to be the sacred ministry of working for reconciliation. ‘Blessed are the peacemakers!’ We believe that this ministry will be the warranty for Christians facing the gloomy future that dawns over Syria … because the Church’s role is to be the herald and architect of reconciliation at every level.”
