The response of MECC Secretary General to the message of UN Secretary General on facing Covid-19
After receiving a special message that Mr António Guterres, the UN Secretary General, addressed to religious leaders and authorities on 11 April 2020, urging them to join forces in coping with COVID-19, especially during the Easter season and Ramadan, Dr Souraya Bechealany, Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), responded to the call in a letter, in which she commended his initiative that left a positive impact on MECC and on its partners of various faith based organizations, religious Christian leaders and leaders of other religions with whom it shares a common responsibility.
Read the full letter below:
Your Excellency Mr. Antonio Guterres,
Secretary-General of the United Nations
We welcome with deep gratitude the special message you addressed to religious leaders on 11/4/2020 urging all of us to join forces in facing COVID-19 that the WHO called “enemy against humanity”. The Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) felt the positive impact of your message as did our partners of various faith based organizations, religious Christian leaders and of other religions with whom we share a common responsibility. In these challenging moments, building bridges of solidarity and developing mechanisms of cooperation for the protection of human beings and their dignity is an inevitable goal we are seeking to achieve hand in hand with UN bodies and agencies, through programs and projects, within available resources.
Your Excellency,
COVID-19 outbreak made us want to return to ourselves, to contemplate our relationship with God, with the universe, with individuals and communities. This return, though late, occurs in a deeply complicated health, economic and social situation associated with severe impacts on the present and future of mankind. Therefore, there is a need for an unconventional conscience awakening along with a moral approach to public policy for consolidation of peace, social justice and sustainable development. However, this can only be achieved by recognizing the right to difference and by a noble pursuit of a rational dialogue on the basis that human beings who were created in God’s image have responsibilities towards their brothers in humanity but also towards the components of this beautiful cosmos. This is exactly what we aim for at MECC along with our partners worldwide.
Your Excellency,
MECC always shared with the United Nations common values and common processes, especially in the fight for peace building and the protection of human rights. This historic convergence deepens our feeling of gratitude towards United Nations’ action in terms of health, relief and development especially in the poorest societies and in conflict areas resulting in tragedies, wounds, displacement, massive destruction of infrastructure and rupture in social fabric.
Therefore, we are addressing ourselves to you, with a hope to see a revitalization of the dynamics of wars prevention and dialogue for ending them. In other words, addressing the root causes of war in parallel with humanitarian interventions to alleviate the pain of victims is needed as much as a good governance of financial, natural and human resources to bridge the gap between rich and poor. Good governance contributes to the implementation of justice and equality.
Your Excellency Mr. Antonio Guterres,
MECC is standing by your side and the United Nations through prayer and action, hoping to consolidate our cooperation for the sake of human dignity and global peace.
Yours sincerely,
Middle East Council of Churches
Dr. Souaraya Bechealany
Secretary General