A Distinguished Conference in Amman

A distinguished two day conference on the challenges facing the Middle East’s Christians was held in Amman from 3-4 of September, 2013. The conference is called by Jordan’s King Abdullah and organized by his chief adviser for religious and cultural affairs, Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad. 

About 70 Eastern and Western Christian leaders and scholars were invited. Rev. Habib Badr was invited in his own right and also represented the president of the Supreme Council of the Evangelical Community in Syria an Lebanon. The Vatican was represented, the two Greek Orthodox Patriarchs: John X of Antioch and Theophilus III of Jerusalem, the Melkite Patriarch Gregorios III of Antioch, the Patriarch of Latin Fuad Twal, Patriarch of the Chaldean Church Louis Sako, the Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem Nurhan Manougian, Bishop of the Anglican Church of Jerusalem, Bp. Munib Younan of the Lutheran Church of Jordan/Palestine, and current president of the Lutheran World Federation, as well as Bp. Avak Assadourian of the Armenian Orthodox Church of Iraq were among the participants. The Coptic Pope Tawadros of Egypt sent a word that was read, and Patriarch Al Raii could only attend for a few hours at lunch at the King’s Palace. in addition to retired Cardinal McCarrick, of Washington D.C.  Canterbury was represented by Bp. Michael Langrish.  Olav Fykse, General Secretary of the WCC was also present and spoke, so also did Rev. Dr. Ian Torrence, a prominent Presbyterian leader from Edinburgh (and ex-president of Princeton Theological Seminary).  Noteworthy also was the presence of certain prominent North American conservative Evangelical leaders and representatives.  Worth mentioning are: Pastor Rick Warren (who said the opening prayer at president Obama’s first inauguration), Rev. Dr. Geoff Tunnicliffe, Secretary General and CEO of the World Evangelical Alliance (who claims to represent 600 million Christians around the world), the Baptist pastor and professor Dr. Paul Fiddes of Oxford University, and Mark Burnett and his wife Roma Downey, the producers of the famous “The Bible” series that aired on the History Channel in the USA.  They are also ambassadors for the World Evangelical Alliance.

Let us hope and pray for a brighter, more secure and peaceful future ahead for all of us living in this troubled region of the world.

(the photo is taken from www.abouna.org)