The Antidote

(With the Video of the Speech)

As a follow-up to the results of the MECC 12th General Assembly, the Secretary General Dr. Michel Abs headed a delegation from MECC in a visit to His Beatitude Patriarch John X, Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and All the East and MECC President for the Orthodox Family, on Monday, June 20, 2022, at the Patriarchal Headquarters in Balamand, North Lebanon. The visit aimed at congratulating His Beatitude after his re-election as MECC President for the Orthodox Family, and informing him of the Council’s future projects and activities as part of the General Assembly’s decisions.

During the visit, Secretary general Dr. Michel Abs delivered a speech which you may watch it and read it though the following video and text. You may also click here to read the full news of the visit.

Your Beatitude Patriarch John X,

Reverend Pastor and Fathers,

Dear colleagues,

After the end of the proceedings of the Twelfth General Assembly and the election of MECC Presidents and members of the Executive Committee, this is the first of our visits as an official delegation to His Beatitude, the Patriarch of Antioch and all the East and MECC President, in order to congratulate Him and get His views on the various issues raised and to obtain His directives regarding the work of the Middle East Council of Churches.

We visited His Holy Beatitude  Patriarch John X, Abundant in Wisdom and Love, seeking his insight and far-reaching view on the many concerns and questions that roam our minds about the region, the Church, the world, and what is being cooked up for tomorrow in dark rooms, for humanity as well as for our region, and on what could be our role as an institution, with limited facilities, in the face of the challenges that we have to face and which we witness multiplying in front of us day by day.

We visited His Beatitude harboring in us questionings about the developments taking place in the world, with its blatant yearnings for divisions, wars and conflicts, just as if humanity is immersed with self-flagellation through indulging in the process of mutual flagellation  . Those who stir up sedition forget that regret does not help and that crying over that which is lost does not bring it back.

There is a clear departure from Christian values ​​based on love that solicit peace and justice in order to build a better tomorrow for humanity. There is also a rejection of Christianity and conspiracies are being set up against it, as if we humans have forgotten where the roots of our civilization, progress and well-being ly.

As for what is worst, there is a misunderstanding of what threatens our region, which I call the Antiochene Levant, with all its components, with a focus on Christians and an attempt to uproot them, psychologically, before embarking on corporeal physical uprooting.

The role of the Church here is as basic as the role of the Council of the Middle East.

The tours that your Beatitude are embarking upon, and the sermons you are delivering to believers as well as for the entire community that perceives them, constitute the direct response to this pathological atmosphere that a number of international circles are trying to spread out in coordination with a few insiders.

What you are doing, your Beatitude, will deepen and fortify roots and stir up the collective and historical memory of your sons, reminding them that we are the people of the earth, the owners of the land, the builders of the civilization on which it has been founded, and the reformers of the culture which its peoples have adopted since time immemorial.

Your leadership in this field is historic, and you are thus drawing for Christians a bold and broad framework of action, as is the case for the Council, which has just completed the work of its General Assembly, and the closing session which you have presided, and the motto of which was courage and fearlessness.

Intimidation is based on numbers, quantities, as they have forgotten that the Incarnate Lord, whose Kingdom has no end, has reached the whole world with a small number of fishermen and has changed the face of human existence.

The roots of the message of the Lord Christ are not only deep in our Levant  and in the whole Middle Eastern world, but moreover in every spot on which civilization has been built, and the suspicious as well as the openly declared attempts to change the names of events, places and other symbols of Christianity are nothing but a slap in the air. All Saints Day will remain as it is called, the Red Cross will remain the emblem of mercy and relief, the cross will remain the emblem of pharmacies, the name of Easter will remain as it is, and the squares and places in all parts of the world will continue to bear the names of saints.

We know very well that we live in a multi-religious and multi-ethnic region, however we know very well also how to be partners in this diversity. We are called to manage it and we have the know-how and experience for that, as expressed in your stances, care and guidance. All this in the context of the comparative advantage of renewal the MECC has embarked on  giving it a rejuvenated  role in its surroundings. However, due to the limitations of our resources, we work according to the pilot work model, that is according of the logic of the pebbles that support the cauldron.

Your Beatitude,

As we prepare for the period following the Twelfth General Assembly, we proceed acting according to the recommendations put forth by the five working groups, which we consider to be think-tanks, and with your permission we will invite them to continue the work they have started implementing during the General Assembly, a task that had been ushered forth before the convening of the Assembly through various specialized technical consultation meetings.

Ever since you have honored me by nominating me to serve in the MECC, I declared that we will expand, generalize and consolidate the culture of consultative work, because consulting is the sharing of people's minds, and actually our churches are full of minds and hearts.

This is the direction we have followed, my colleagues and I, since the beginning of my service and we will make sure to continue in this pathway in order to serve the Church, humankind and society in our region as well as outside it, to the best of our abilities, as we feel that we have a role in combating the misinformation that affects us all over the world.

 As I end my address, I pray to the Almighty God to preserve your Beatitude in good health and wellbeing so that you may continue what you are doing for the Church as well as for humankind. We plead that you keep us in your prayers and intercessions so that the Council can carry out all the work entrusted to it.

And may the Lord keep you for many years, your Beatitude

Michel Abs

Balamand on June 20, 2022

This speech was delivered during the visit of the delegation of the Middle East Council of Churches to His Beatitude Patriarch John X at the Patriarchal Residence in Balamand.