Jordan Times
Monday, June 6, 2005
Church leaders call for
respect of human rights
By Mahmoud Al Abed
AMMAN — Middle East Church leaders on Friday commended Muslim-Christian
coexistence in Jordan and called on churches to work for “peace and justice in
the region.”
At the end of their two-day meeting,
representatives of 35 churches in the Middle East called on the world to bring
an end to the wave of immigration “of Muslims and Christians” from Palestine and
Iraq; for respect of human rights and further work on interfaith dialogue.
The statement was made at the conclusion of the closed-door meetings of the
executive committee of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) at the Dead
Sea, presided over by Coptic Pope Shenouda III of Egypt.
The MECC took a firm stand against the US-led war on Iraq. “A military offensive
will leave behind ruin and a shattered country. Chaos will ensue,” a council
statement prior to the 2003 invasion, said.
During the UN sanctions on the country before the war, the council had provided
ecumenical relief services in Iraq, becoming a channel for international relief
and reconstruction.
MECC Amman office Director Wafa F. Goussous said the council has also supplied
Iraq war refugees on the Jordan-Iraq border with their daily needs of food and
other essentials in coopretation with a local Islamic charity.
Earlier Friday, the Coptic pontiff paid a visit to the Baptism Site in the
Jordan Valley, which was seen as a gesture of recognition by the Coptic
Christians of the authenticity of the site where Christ was baptised two
millenniums ago.
Yesterday, Pope Shenouda laid the cornerstone of St. Antonius Monastery in
Madaba and is scheduled to inaugurate the Coptic Church in Abdali today, before
heading home.
The Coptic congregation in Jordan is estimated at 8,000, the majority of whom
are Coptic Egyptian expatriates, in addition to Jordanian and Palestinian Coptic
families whose origins go back to Egypt.
The Coptic Church is based on the teachings of Saint Mark who brought
Christianity to Egypt during the reign of Roman Emperor Nero in the first
century AD.
The MECC executive committee comprises 24 members, in addition to the four
elected presidents of “families” or sects represented in the council. The
council describes itself as “a fellowship of churches relating itself to the
mainstream of the modern ecumenical movement.”