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Bob Scott

"We went to the Middle East in solidarity with the churches and people of that region at a time when many Westerners are afraid to go," said a participant in a seminar on "Sharing the Good News in the Middle East" held in Aleppo, Syria, 1-7 June 2002.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has strengthened its links with the Middle East region through its work in Christian-Muslim dialogue, within the Decade to Overcome Violence, and in relation to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

This particular seminar, organized by the WCC Mission and Evangelism team in cooperation with the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), was for study and discussion of biblical and theological understandings of the relationship between evangelism and mission.

"The seminar came at a very critical time when, every day, we receive confusing news about violence in the Middle East, when our young people are emigrating and emptying the area of Christians and, consequently, of a Christian presence and witness," said Huda Kandalaft, Christian education director of the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon.

"We went to underline the 'other side of the coin'; to share the good news in the context of the violence and destruction in the Middle East," said Rev. Carlos Ham of the WCC's Mission and Evangelism team. Ham stressed that the seminar was not intended to present a new theology on mission and evangelism, but rather to support the local churches in their contextual mission and work on evangelism. "One of the aims was to encourage local churches to discover and explore new means and ways for their evangelizing work in the region," he said.

The thirty participants came from Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt, and from four families of churches: the Eastern Orthodox (Greek), Oriental Orthodox (Syrian, Coptic and Armenian), Protestant and Evangelical, and Roman Catholic.

Razek Syriani, director of the MECC Unit on Education and Renewal, said that "Ecumenical instruments such as the WCC and MECC are the ones that local churches depend on to provide the ecumenical environment for wider sharing."

The seminar is the second Mission and Evangelism "School of Evangelism" in this period. The first took place in Cuba, December 2001 for the Caribbean churches. It is anticipated that some participants from these and future "schools" will attend the World Mission Conference in 2005.

"The meeting in Aleppo came at a time of chaos, isolation, social and economic disorder in the Middle East. It was a time to affirm and confirm the Christian call for reconciliation, peace and justice," said Kandalaft. "For us, every human being is a holy temple for God, and we stand with every man and woman regardless of their ethnic, cultural, social or religious background. There is no holy shrine for Christians except the human shrine," he concluded.

Bob Scott is a communication officer in the WCC Public Information Team