“The Middle East Council of Churches is at its very foundation a body of the Christians of the entire region and a bridge between Christians in the Middle East and Christianity in the world,” writes Tarek A. Sater, the council’s office director and program coordinator.
For Christians in Syria who have fled to Iraq and Lebanon, the council’s service programs also offer emotional and practical support.
Inside Syria, one of the council’s biggest humanitarian relief programs, reaches internally displaced persons throughout the provinces, distributing “critical humanitarian aid items to families who have had to flee their homes but have been able to remain within Syria,” Sater said.
Ties with Christians outside the Middle East also are crucial. The council, for example, has served as a liaison to link a congregation of the United Church of Canada in Nova Scotia with the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church in Aleppo. “This relationship of solidarity between east and west gives hope and encouragement to Christians living in tense situations,” he wrote.
– Linda Bloom, United Methodist News Service