Lebanon : Pressure mounts on last bastion of hope for Christianity in the Middle East

ICC Note

“ Lebanon has been an example of how people – both Muslims and Christians – can work and live together. It was a success story for the Church in the Middle East . Now all this is in danger of disappearing.”

By John Pontifex

5/1/2008 Lebanon (ACN)-Political conflict and economic collapse are driving Christians from Lebanon in a crisis which spells disaster for the future of the Church, not only in the Levant but all across the Middle East .

Such is the verdict of Aid to the Church in Need project co-ordinators who, on a project assessment trip to Lebanon last week, were shocked by the hemorrhaging numbers of faithful and the desire of many Christians to flee to the West.

Numbers of Christians have dropped dramatically in the last 30 years. Towns and villages which until the 1970s were 30 percent Christian have now dropped to barely three percent.

And yet they found that the overall decline of Christianity in Lebanon was so severe it had “profound ramifications” because historically the country has always been seen as the last bastion of hope for the future of Christianity all over the Middle East .

Miss Lynch said: “ Lebanon has been an example of how people – both Muslims and Christians – can work and live together. It was a success story for the Church in the Middle East . Now all this is in danger of disappearing.”

Marie-Ange Siebrecht, ACN Middle East projects coordinator, said that the decline in the number of Christians in Lebanon meant the Church was increasingly unable to play its role as an essential “bridge” healing the tensions between Muslims.

Both Miss Lynch and Mrs Siebrecht said ACN wanted to help rebuild churches, presbyteries and parish halls.

“The Christians in Lebanon are still very strong in their faith,” she said. “The number of vocations remains very high and there is an urgent need for formation programmes and self-reliance projects.”

She said: “People would never come back to their villages unless there is a Church to support them. It is the Church which calls them back.”

Miss Lynch said: “The Christians repeated again and again to us the need not to forget them in prayer. They sometimes feel very isolated and forgotten.”