Middle East: PRO ORIENTE workshops promote synodality and ecumenism

Cairo/Bethlehem/Vienna, 29.09.22 (poi) Together with its cooperation partner, the “We choose abundant life” group, the PRO ORIENTE foundation has held six youth workshops in Middle Eastern countries in recent months, with the aim of promoting synodality, ecumenism and socio-political engagement based on Christian values. More than 150 young Christians were able to participate in the events.

The most recent workshop took place in Egypt from September 16 to 18. At the invitation of the Coptic Pope-Patriarch Tawadros II, 22 adolescents and young adults came together at the Logos Center in Wadi Natrun. They belonged to the Coptic Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican and Protestant churches.

The workshop was led by PRO ORIENTE program director Viola Raheb, together with Prof. Assaad E. Kattan and John Daniel. PRO ORIENTE President Alfons M. Kloss and the foundation's CFO Gordian Gudenus had also come to Egypt. “It was impressive to see how committed these young people from the various Christian churches in Egypt were when discussing their respective situations and how they want to embark on a path to work together in society for the common good and live their faith,” Kloss concluded.

The workshop was an inspiring experience for everyone, “showing how Christian cooperation can be possible from the perspective of young people”. This should also be an incentive and motivation for PRO ORIENTE's further work in this area, said Kloss.

The workshop took place in cooperation with the Ecumenical Council of Churches in Egypt. Its General Secretaries Archimandrite Damaskinos, Fr. Helmy Bishoy and Rev. Yashou, who gave a joint presentation about the views of their respective churches on the importance of young people for the future of the church, were also present. In his welcoming address at the beginning of the event, President Kloss thanked Patriarch Tawadros for the generous hospitality.

At the end of the workshop, the young people reaffirmed their commitment to greater synodality and ecumenism. “They want to travel together, network and meet once a month in the future,” said Raheb. The young people saw concrete prospects for further action in “all of them visiting different diaconal and charitable projects of the various churches together”.

Workshop for Christians from Galilee

In the first half of September, another workshop took place in Bethlehem, in which 16 young people from the greater Galilee area participated. They belonged to the Greek Orthodox, Catholic, Melkite, Maronite and Anglican churches. According to program director Raheb, the main challenges that the young people worked on together are based on three central levels: “the interdenominational Christian, the Christian-Muslim and the Christian-Jewish level”.

The workshop also included a walking tour of Bethlehem. Some of the participants were in the city and in the Church of the Nativity for the first time, Raheb reported. The tour was also in response to a recommendation from the last workshop in Palestine to include visits to the Holy Sites in the program.

Finally, on the last day, the participants of the first workshop in June from Palestine also joined. “The participants of both workshops want to work as a joint group in the future,” said Raheb, initially in the context of online meetings. The topics of the next meetings will be the document “We choose abundant life” and ecumenism in the Middle East.

In both workshops, similar to those already held in neighboring countries, “the desire for better mutual understanding and more ecumenical cooperation, especially among young people, is strongly felt,” Raheb concluded.

Continued in Austria

The first workshop took place in Beirut (Lebanon) in March, followed by further workshops in Amman (Jordan) in May, in Bethlehem (Palestine) in June and in Erbil/Ankawa (Iraq) in July. At the end of January 2023, four to five participants from each of the different countries will come together in Austria for an ecumenical regional networking meeting to get to know each other and to jointly develop the next steps towards strengthening the voice and contribution of young Christians in their churches and societies.