Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, December 1997, Pages 104-105, 114

Christianity and the Middle East

EMEU Conference to Ponder Christianity’s Future in Mideast

By Rev. L. Humphrey Walz

EMEU (Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding) describes itself as "an informal fellowship of North American evangelical Christians committed to dialogue which seeks mutual understanding, respect and friendship between Middle Eastern and Western Christians." The theme for its Nov. 6-8 annual conference in Houston will be "Mission Today Where Mission Began: The Future of Christianity in the Middle East." Scheduled to be held at the First Presbyterian Church, Main St. (hard by the Wyndham Hotel, where most out-of-town participants plan to stay), its pre-conference on Thursday, Nov. 6, will focus on "Jerusalem and the Things That Make for Peace."

Sharpening that focus in its past, present and future contexts will be Prof. Gary Burge of Wheaton College, director Tom Getman of World Vision's Jerusalem office, president Nancy Kort of the Arab Orthodox Society, formerly with Catholic Relief Services in Jerusalem, and Dr. Harold Vogelaar, professor of missions at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago and founder of that city's Christian-Muslim Program of the Reformed Church in America. Vogelaar served as a missionary in Cairo for 15 years, followed by 14 more years in the Gulf countries.

The conference proper will open at 8:30 a.m. on Friday, with an hour's Bible-centered study probing "Toward a Biblical Basis for Mission in the Middle East." The rest of the morning will be devoted to analyzing the conference theme's Islamic and Christian context. This emphasis relates to the fact that Islam is statistically the overwhelming religion of the Middle East and, of all the world's religions, the closest to Christianity.

Slated to be the springboard presenter on Friday is Princeton-trained Dr. Habib Badr, professor of church history at the Near East School of Theology and pastor of the National Evangelical Church in downtown Beirut. Designated to lead responses to that presentation are Dean Dudley Woodberry of Fuller Theological Seminary's School of World Missions, who has served the Presbyterian Church in Lebanon, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia and who was a consultant to the Carter administration on Middle East matters. In 1989 he edited Muslims and Christians on the Emmaus Road.

Discussion of these presentations will be in small, intimate groups followed by workshops on "Toward a Just Peace in Jerusalem," "The Suffering Church in the Middle East," and "Middle East Programs for the Local Church," with three more workshops centered on specific developments and challenges in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Egypt.

Islam is, of all the world's religions, the closest to Christianity.

Keynote addresses will be given at the evening banquet by Susan Baker and Riad Jarjour. Baker is a founding member of the National (U.S.) Alliance to End Homelessness, a board member of numerous agencies devoted to issues of justice and poverty, and a director of the forward-looking First World Congress on Forgiveness and Reconciliation slated for Jerusalem in 1999. Jarjour is general secretary of the Middle East Council of Churches, which he had previously served for 15 years as director of youth programs.

Saturday morning will feature a panel on "The Suffering Church and Our Response." Father Mauritius, a monk of the Coptic Orthodox Church and secretary to Pope Shenouda, will report on Christians in Egypt. Dr. Jarjour will speak on Christians in Iraq, Dr. Badr on Christians in Lebanon, and Nora Kort on Christians in Palestine. Aida Farris, former president of the YWCA in Lebanon, now director of the Center for Middle East Studies in Buffalo, will speak on Women in the Middle East.

After lunch seven workshops will concentrate on "Fund-raising for Peace and Justice," "Sister Church Relationships," "Responsible Christian Tourism," "Christian Responses to Legislation," "Mission and Dialogue in the Islamic World," "Women to Women" and "New Forms of Mission Partnerships in the Middle East."

Closing worship will be led by editor David Neff of Christianity Today. He is an Episcopalian and board chairman of EMEU, which is headquartered at North Park Seminary, 5510 N. Spaulding Ave., Chicago, IL 60625.

Center for Middle East Studies Brings Chacour to Address Anniversary Celebration

Since 1891, when the Evangelical Covenant Church established North Park University and Seminary in the northern reaches of Chicago, that institution has never ceased to include the Middle East as an area of special interest. This has been largely through the biblical and missionary emphasis in its tradition. To this, latterly, the increasing numbers of students from Southwest Asia and North Africa have added yet another dimension.

It was not until 1995, however, that these and other elements were to crystalize into the creation of the special Center for Middle East Studies. Then, under the leadership of the Rev. Dr. Donald E. Wagner, the CEO of Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding who also is steeped in teamwork with the Christians of the entire area, that center took shape and its programming immediately started gathering momentum.

Its Second Anniversary Celebration—a Sept. 14 reception and dinner at North Park's Magnuson Campus Center—featured a lecture, "Peace When There is No Peace," by Father Elias Chacour of Ibillin, Galilee, in Israel. Chacour, a long-time friend and colleague of Wagner's, is author of two extremely popular books, Blood Brothers and We Belong to the Land (both are offered in the AET Book Club Catalog)

Chacour has had a quiet, positive and unique role in trying to establish acceptable relations between the Christian Palestinians of Galilee and their Israeli conquerors. When Father Chacour was eight, he and his family were driven out of their ancestral village, Baram, and became refugees in their native Galilee after their homes were destroyed by Israeli soldiers.

After studying for the priesthood, and eager to find positive factors in Jewish tradition that might lead to harmony among contending peoples of the area, in 1967 Father Chacour entered Hebrew University in Jerusalem to attain a degree in Biblical and Talmudic Studies. In 1969, he went to Ibillin on a full-time basis and began his educational and pastoral efforts. He has helped establish youth centers throughout the Galilee and continues to conduct summer camps for 5,000 young people. In addition, he has built eight public libraries.

In 1981, he and others established the Prophet Elias High School in Ibillin with 82 students. It now enrolls 1,800. In recent years that high school has placed first in all of Israel in Hebrew Studies and has been cited for awards in most technological fields. In 1989, Father Chacour was awarded an honorary doctorate by St. Michael's College, Vermont. In 1994 he received the World Methodist Peace Award.

In its brief existence, Chicago's Center for Middle Eastern Studies has already developed the following programs: a lecture series that brings five religious and political analysts to the campus each year; a minor in Middle Eastern Studies approved by North Park for undergraduate credit; and consultation services to churches and educational organizations on programs, or research in and travel to the Middle East. It oversees the Palestine Scholarship Program which brings one new student from the Palestinian territories to North Park University annually for a four-year scholarship. It has a working agreement with the Sabeel Theological Center in Jerusalem and is represented among the U.N. Non-Governmental Organizations on the Question of Palestine. It also has become the chapter of Amnesty International that focuses on cases of human rights violations in the Middle East.

VME Workers Give Insights on Iraq and Jerusalem

The non-denominational Venture Middle East team of Seattle- and Cyprus-based physicians, along with project manager Dr. Jim Jennings, is back from Baghdad. The team consisted of dedicated doctors from Switzerland, Egypt, India and the U.S. working together to teach child survival techniques in an effort to reduce the number of children dying there. Tragically, over half a million Iraqi children have died of embargo-related preventable diseases since the Gulf war started seven years ago. However, thanks to the VME physicians, many others will survive.

"We believe our calling in Christ is to serve 'the least of these' wherever and whenever they are found," explains VME president Leonard Rodgers, who went even more recently with another team to Jerusalem. During their time in the Holy Land they stopped in a village on the way to Hebron. There they visited a Palestinian family with eight children whose home had been bulldozed by the Israeli authorities. The family was given just 30 minutes to remove anything of value from the house.

After bulldozing the home as "collective punishment," the court found Ali, the father, innocent of all charges of disorder (his alleged crime). No apology has been made and no compensation is forthcoming. Right now the parents and their eight sons and daughters live in one room of an old house near their destroyed home. While other Arabs are facing situations just like this one, thousands of new residences for Jewish settlers are springing up all around Jerusalem.

"Serving God in the Middle East is not easy," writes Rodgers, in a letter soliciting "your prayers, your understanding and your sacrificial support...Often VME must take a stand that is not understood or is unpopular. We are in good company in doing so. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was one of the Christian voices in Germany to cry out against the slaughter of Jews under Hitler, had a commitment that made him unpopular, too. Hitler executed him for his stand."

The mailing address for Venture Middle East is P.O. Box 15313, Seattle, WA 98115-0313.

CLM in the Middle East

CLM (Christians Linked in Mission) is an unusual type of charity. In our experience it's unique. It raises funds for, and distributes them to, other benevolent enterprises that are doing good jobs but could increase their effectiveness if they secured supplementary funds from new donors.

We learned about CLM some dozen years ago through one of its beneficiaries in Beirut: the Contact and Resource Center (CRC), a Lebanese Christian enterprise that teaches marketable skills to the physically handicapped and assists them in finding local, European and American outlets for their handicrafts. Our introduction to CLM came through Mrs. Raga Nasr of Lebanon and the U.S., who brought with her on a U.S. lecture tour some very attractive figurines skillfully carved by local artists from cedar wood of Lebanon. I found the Nativity scenes—whether single pieces or separate shepherds, Holy Family, wise men or animals—each with a tag identifying the young woodcarver who had produced it, particularly appropriate for Christmas gifts.

For ecclesiastical friends and relatives I was later attracted to the damask silk stoles with their intricately stitched needlework produced by the more advanced students in CLM sewing units. The Maronite Catholic patriarch has a complete collection of such vestments for each season. The pope, on his visit to Beirut last spring, took time out to drop in on CRC's recently expanded work facilities and sales displays of woodcarving, embroidery, macramé, crocheting, stitchery, quilting, glassware and ceramics. He expressed special pleasure on accepting a stole presented to him by Samona Spier, a seriously handicapped artist there.

CRC was conceived and created in 1978 by a Lutheran missionary, Rev. Dennis Hilgendorf, who lived in Lebanon from 1962 to 1988. He dedicated it to helping marginalized people, particularly the physically disabled, regardless of origin, gender or religious affiliation, to attain financial independence.

It grew steadily but slowly until 1991 when CLM and CRC discovered each other, their partnership became closer and CRC's projects and productivity increased dramatically. In addition, the enthusiasm and cooperation between staff and volunteers spurred the acquisition of a mini-bus. Made "handicapped friendly" and renamed the Handy Taxi, the vehicle has permitted the center to schedule transportation and services. Campgrounds subsequently acquired permit health-building weekends and vacations.

CRC also has acquired an independent-living apartment building and equipped it for eight wheelchair-bound working women to share kitchen and household responsibilities and modest rent. CRC now has set out to create 10 more such apartments equipped with ramps and lifts in 1998.

More information about this and related projects can be secured from Ms. Bernita Marquardt, CLM, P.O. Box 458, Arnold, MO 63010-0458, tel. (314) 464-9256, fax (314) 464-4053.

Other CLM Middle East projects include the development of olive trees in seven districts of Upper Egypt, a center in Jerusalem for teaching visually impaired women to become independent, a project in Cairo to encourage self-support through street vending of the popular Egyptian snack, fuul medemmas, and, in Beirut, the completion this fall of a glassed-in arcade with ramp and balcony for the sale of products made by handicapped workers throughout Lebanon.

In Arnold, MO, Ms. Marquardt stocks some of those products that make unique Christmas gifts, a descriptive price list of which can be secured from her. My favorite is a 71Ž2-inch-high $75 cedar Nativity with Mary, Joseph and Jesus in a particularly affectionate family grouping. Other offerings, all distinctively charming, range in price from a $3 cross to an $85 Santa.