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Photo: Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I embrace.
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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.
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The Coptic Orthodox Church has selected a 60-year-old bishop as its 118th pope and patriarch.
CWN - “The most important thing is for the church to go back and live consistently within the spiritual boundaries, because this is its main work, spiritual work,” said Pope Abna Tawadros (Theodorus) II, who will be installed on November 18.
After a 2,400 clergy and prominent laity had chosen three final candidates for the papacy, a blindfolded boy selected Tawadros’s name from a chalice. Pope Tawadros succeeds Shenouda III, who died in March after a remarkable tenure of almost 40 years as the Coptic leader.
The new Coptic pope faces a daunting challenge in Egypt, where the a climate of rising Islamic militance has placed new stress on the religious minority.
In a message to the new Coptic leader, Pope Benedict XVI voiced his confidence that he would "be a genuine spiritual father" after the example of Pope Shenouda. The Roman Pontiff said: "In these challenging times it is important for all Christians to bear witness to the love and fellowship that binds them together, mindful of the prayer offered by our Lord at the Last Supper: that all may be one, so that the world may believe."
The Coptic Orthodox Church, based in Egypt, traces its origins to St. Mark’s evangelization of Alexandria. Like other churches of the Oriental Orthodox, the Coptic Orthodox Church ceased to be in full communion with the Holy See following the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon in 451.
The Coptic Orthodox Church has 9 million members, most of them in Egypt; the Coptic Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic church in full communion with the Holy See, has 162,000 members.
Additional sources for this story
Some links will take you to other sites, in a new window.
- Coptic Church Chooses Pope Who Rejects Political Role (New York Times)
- Tawadros II: The 118th pope of the Coptic Church (MSN)
- Papal Message for the Election of the New Head of the Coptic Orthodox Church (VIS)
- The Coptic Orthodox Church (CNEWA)
- The Coptic Catholic Church (CNEWA)
- In a time of trouble, Egypt's Coptic Orthodox choose a new pope (CWN, 10/29)
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H. B. Gregorios III LAHAM, B.S., Patriarch of Antioch of the Greek-Melkites, Head of the Synod of the Greek-Melkite Church (SYRIA) Sixth General Congregation Thursday October 11 afternoon 2012
New evangelization is synonymous to updating. This Council is an update. The council documents are the prelude to our Synod.
Three points to my intervention
1. Formation or creation of frameworks We, the Christians in the Orient, we bathe in a non-Christian world: we are the small flock, ad extra in relation to Islam, and ad intra because of the decrease of religious practice.
The Realpolitik imposes upon us to work in keeping in mind this dual reality ad extra and ad intra. This means to concentrate our pastoral work of the New Evangelization on this small flock, without excluding the whole of our faithful that practice to a lesser degree.
This small flock must be excellent, to form through it the team of agents of New Evangelization.
Even if the Church grows to huge dimensions, she must maintain the strategy of the small flock.
This is the meaning, the essence, the motivation, the reason for being of the Eastern small flock and everywhere. This is the apostolic strategy: to form the small flock to being with and for the large flock.
2. Vademecum of the Christian faith
Our faith is beautiful. However its content and its statements are very difficult.
The proclamation of the faith in Islam can be summarized by this dual witness: “There is no other god but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet”.
For the Jews, the substance of the Faith is expressed by the double commandment: “I am your God! You have no other but me. You will love your God with all your heart, and your neighbour as yourself!”
Our beautiful Christian faith is too complicated: the terms, their content and their explanation. We bathe in an ensemble of dogmas, of mysteries: the Holy Trinity, the Incarnation, Redemption, the Sacraments (called mysteries by the Greeks).
These dogmas must be interpreted in a form capable of touching upon daily life, human aspirations, happiness and prosperity, the daily realities of our faithful.
From this, we can see the great importance and need for the New Evangelization to create a concise, precise and clear text on our Faith. This is important for our faithful ad intra, as well as for our fellow non-Christian citizens ad extra.
I hope that this proposition can find its path, and that theologians will be charged with it at the end of our Synod.
3. Practical programme
The New Evangelization is necessarily conditioned by the specificity of the local Church; in time, the context of Tradition, customs, culture, needs. For this reason, I have also presented an essay from an Eastern point of view, Melkite Greek-Catholic, Arabic, of the New Evangelization with practical propositions.
See the list in the complete text of my intervention.
[Original text: English] Source:http://www.vatican.va/news_services/press/sinodo/documents/bollettino_25_xiii-ordinaria-2012/02_inglese/b11_02.html#-_H._B._Grégoire_III_LAHAM,_B.S.,_Patriarch_of_Antiochia_of_the_Greek-Melkites,_Head_of_the_Synod_of_the_Greek-Melkite_Church_(SYRIA)_
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Vatican City, (VIS) - Beginning on Wednesday 10 October, during the Holy Father's weekly general audience, an Arabic speaker will join the other speakers who provide a summary of the papal catechises in various different languages.
In this way, in the wake of his recent trip to Lebanon and the publication of the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation "Ecclesia in Medio Oriente", the Holy Father intends to express his perpetual concern and support for Christians in the Middle East, and to remind everyone of their duty to pray and work for peace in the region.
Source: http://www.news.va/en/news/arabic-to-become-a-part-of-the-popes-general-audie
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Tuesday 9 October 2012 - The Patriarch of Antioch of the Melkite Greek Catholics, Gregorios III (Laham), Head of the Synod of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, spoke twice: first to ask for more continuous contact between all the Churches; and then to say that Catholics in the Near and Middle East must have the courage to present their faith even in the most dangerous situations. Referring to the current state of affairs in that part of the world, the Patriarch said that the values expressed in the Gospel can also be an important contribution: "a good programme," he said, for the so-called Arab Spring.
With acknowledgment to L’Osservatore Romano
Italian Translation V. Chamberlain
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Saskatoon - The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Eparchy of Saskatoon has published on its website a montage of photos from the recent visit of Patriarch Sviatoslav, produced by TimKip Imaging.
For more information visit: http://www.skeparchy.org