Meeting with Church Leaders and Iraqi Young Adults

Day 4 journal by Ken Hall

What a great day of learning this has been! It began with our meeting with His Beatitude Patriarch Ignatius IV of the Greek Orthodox Church in the Old City. His Beatitude wanted to know how we could make so many churches in the States and what we did with the people among whom we are growing? He reminded us that it was a miraculous thing. He believes that we are in relationship with any church at all and that changes should be made if people choose it. “Churches”, he says, “should love another and respect one another, we are many but not divided.” He hopes Christians will be together than against each other. He continues by saying that it matters how we are seen and judged by our partners – we are not infallible.

His beatitude asked the question – Are we being successful or not, i.e., are we being successful in our efforts of witness and presence ? He answers that by suggesting that the church belongs to Christ and nobody else. He believes strongly that Christianity needs to come back to the Middle East. Christ was not born in New York nor did Paul go to Washington, he suggested. We speak about Christ, He gave himself to the maximum. His Beatitude believes that Christians are the best type of presence with Muslims in the Middle East. He is proud of the fact that his Patriarchate is here with the Christian Community in the Middle East. He hopes that Christians in the Middle East are perceived as a courageous community, He says that by “Our activities we are known – come and see.”

His Beatitude Patriarch Ignatius IV is a very simple but gracious person, with a deep passion for the united witness of the Christians in the Middle East, and the unity of Christians around the world.

Our next visit for the morning was with Bishop Arman, Bishop of Damascus and Syria for the Armenian Orthodox Church. He shared with us that the Armenians organize their schools, cultural clubs and educational life around the church, Armenians youth go to Armenian schools. Many Armenians came to Syria after the genocide. For him, the practice of spirituality in Syria and Damascus is very good and the Armenian community in Damascus is very stable. He, however, was concerned about the plight of Armenians in Iraq. He spoke of the emigration to Armenia, America and the Gulf countries to find work. For the Iraqi Armenians living in Damascus, all the services are paid by the church. His goal is to get Armenians together and to invite them to the Armenian way of life as practiced in his diocese. He felt that they were not happy because they had no friends and their future is unknown. He spoke of how Armenian families were kidnapped for ransom.

We experienced this bishop to be very quiet spoken, articulate, and demonstrated a passion for his people as well as for the unity and witness of the church in the Middle East.

The third visit of the day was to the Greek Melkite Catholic Patriarchate. H.B. Gregorios III is the Patriarch of Antioch and all the East of Alexandria and Jerusalem. This was a delightful visit and conversation him. He spoke of Jerusalem as the mother church and how Christianity came to Damascus. He reminded us that the church was a synagogue and that the first Christian Community was formed two to three weeks after Pentecost. For him, divisions in the church in the Middle East were not divisions at all but cultural expressions of the church. The feeling is that we are one church and that there is unity in spite of our diversity. He reminded us that the bishops are in relationship with him and not to Rome. He is elected by the bishops and enjoys a good relationship with but independent of Rome.

The Patriarch felt that ecumenism was in good health. He also felt that Islam was too aggressive and must be reminded that they cannot impose their ideas on others. We are equal in love, he says. We are all sons and daughters of God, we have to be complimentary and join together in love and welcome one another. He spoke of the importance of dialogue – of love of God and love of neighbor as important word in a call to dialogue with the Muslim community. He suggested that “Little flock” was a better descriptive term for the Christians in the Middle East than minority. He saw the settlement in Israel as an impediment to peace, and his word to us is that if we want to be a partner then do peace. If we have a real concern for Christian presence, then do peace.

Like the other Patriarchs with whom we met, Gregorios was articulate, passionate for a united Christian witness and presence, and was very accommodating.

The final visit with the Patriarchate was with the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch, who felt that we are not alone in the world when we visit. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. Belief in our Lord Jesus Christ makes us one.. He said that the propaganda in the West is that there are no Christians in the Middle East. Syriac Christians, he says, speak and write the language of our Lord – Aramaic. He was happy that Syria allows them to practice the Christian religion and teach their own language. There was respect for other churches. It was important to him that Christians in the Middle East live with Muslims in peace and cooperate in many ways. The greatest challenge that he saw was unfaithful people. All Christians, he says, should be faithful in supporting the faith of our Lord. For him, witness for our Lord among the Muslim community should distinguish between those people who do not allow us to practice our religion and teach the ancient language from those who do. He spoke of being in full communion with the Armenian, Coptic and Greek churches. He felt that it was important for the Syriac Orthodox Church to be a part of the World Council as well as the Middle East Council of Churches. Christ invites us to do, he says.

The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) relates to these Patriarchate through the support of Global Ministries to the Middle East Council of Churches.

The day of meetings ended with a meeting of a group of Iraqi young adults who had gathered for a weeklong conference. Their stories of life before and after the invasion were very moving. They told us that they needed solutions to the problems they now face in Iraq and asked us to help them in finding solutions and a future because they did not see one. They asked us to convey to our government a simple message – “Please find a way to help us!”

All these encounters today have given us a face and a relationship to take home. Our hearts are broken by these stories we have heard and seen in the faces of the people with whom we have dialogued. The least we can do is to try the best we can to tell their stories. They are counting on us to be faithful partners and witnesses.