Rabweh, Lebanon – 10 May 2011
In the name of Christ the
Saviour, risen from the dead, we are inaugurating the Liqaa Meeting Centre for
the dialogue of civilisations beside the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchate in
Rabweh.
We are inaugurating this Liqaa
Meeting Centre in your presence and under your patronage, Your Excellency, General
Michel Sleiman, President of the Lebanese Republic. Your presence is the sign
of your love for the Melkite Greek Catholic Church and of the very special
concern you have for the spiritual and social values of dialogue in Lebanon,
and your appreciation of the goals that the Liqaa Centre seeks to realise, as a
place for the expression and development of those values.
The Liqaa Centre has taken as its
object to be a local and international centre for dialogue between people in
their religion, faith, civilisation, culture, industry, politics, thought,
vision, outlook and perspectives of their whole life.
Though born today, it is in the
very old, traditional line of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, which has
always been considered as a Church without borders, that makes every possible
effort to build bridges in a divided world, through dialogue without frontiers
– a religious, cultural dialogue that embraces the whole of civilisation.
Meeting has always been an object
of very special concern to me. We were one of the first founders of the Al-Liqa
Center in Jerusalem in 1983, together with its longstanding current Director,
Dr. Geries Khoury, one of our faithful from Upper Galilee. We founded it together
with a select group of Palestinian Christian and Muslim thinkers, university
teachers. I was head of its board of trustees until my election as Patriarch in
2000. Palestine’s Al-Liqa Center remains to this day its dialogue centre par
excellence.
We chose the term Liqaa, wishing
to express through this the essential goal of this institution: that of
meeting, in the absolute sense. We call men and women to meet, without
determining the aim or objective of the meeting. The meeting takes place within
the bounds of human perspectives, whatever their scope or range.
Liqaa is a centre for meeting
between God and man, through faith, religion and belief. It is a religious
meeting, of Christian, Muslim and Jewish faith, and moreover, of meeting with
all sorts of convictions, even outside those of church, synagogue or mosque. It
is an encounter in the vast sanctuary or temple of the world, a meeting of
people with one another in the world which is both God’s and man’s; limited by
neither time nor place, nor confined to an East-West theme, nor to the
civilisation and culture of our Eastern Arab world, nor to the cultural and
intellectual ambiance of the Mediterranean basin nor even that of Europe and
the West. In fact our Middle East was and still remains the road to the Far
East. The world is the purview for our Liqaa Centre, which will be an open
academic centre and a global platform. It is an intellectual, academic centre
of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church in Arab countries, emigration countries
and throughout the whole world and through this Church, a platform for
everyone.
Allow me, Your Excellency,
President of the Lebanese Republic, to say with pride that the Liqaa Centre is
at the service of your thought and vision. In fact, it was you who launched the
idea that Lebanon is the centre of meeting and dialogue of civilisations, from
the highest global platform at the United Nations. In fact this Liqaa Centre is
at the service of your congresses for implementation of your guidelines and for
your dialogue programmes. Furthermore, we place the Liqaa Centre at the service
of Lebanon’s mission, which is itself the mission. In fact we can say that
Lebanon itself is essentially and entirely a dialogue centre for the Arab world
and for the whole world.
Your Excellency, President of the
Republic, ladies and gentleman, my brothers and sisters, this great association,
this Liqaa Centre, would not have seen the light of day, without the generosity
of a great person, who has a broad, humane vision, a man of immense horizons,
with an enlightened mind and large heart, engaged in dialogue and government, a
wise leader, open to his people and citizens and to the Arab world and indeed
the whole world: I mean the great Sultan Qaboos, Sultan of Oman, may God, in
his protection and concern, preserve him.
It is thanks to the generosity of
His Majesty and his hand, heart and mind that this Liqaa Centre was able to be
built. Moreover a unique project has been realised in this way, a joint project
between the Sultanate of Oman and the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. It is a
project of charity, of love, that links the Patriarchate to the Sultanate of
Oman, and the Patriarch and the Sultan. It is a project built through the
stones of that love. The stone building was completed with God’s blessing and
the generosity of the Sultan’s gift. There still remains the joint project
between the Patriarchate and the Sultanate and its representatives, a continuation
through the Liqaa Centre’s projects, congresses, perspectives, spirituality and
vision. This link between the Patriarchate and the Sultanate will be recorded
in letters of gold in the registers of the Patriarchate’s history and the
memories of its generations to come. Here too, prayers and invocations will be
continually raised in the church of Our Lady of the Annunciation, the Virgin
Mary whom, as the Qur’an says[1],
“God chose and purified, chosen above all women of the nations.” The Virgin
Mary, our Lady of the Annunciation, who is the patron of this new church that
overlooks the Liqaa Centre and that will be inaugurated very soon, will be the
protector of His Majesty, the Sultan, his collaborators and all his people. She
will bless him and all those who have worked and will continue to work in this
centre, and all those who will benefit from the services of this centre.
The church of Our Lady of the
Annunciation that we shall soon be inaugurating is linked to the mission of
this Liqaa Centre. Indeed, the Feast of the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary was
declared a national religious holiday for the whole of Lebanon and for all
Lebanese citizens, both Christian and Muslim. It is a feast of dialogue, and in
its Greek expression evangelismos, an announcement of beautiful, joyful
news.
So from this Church of the
Annunciation and this Liqaa Centre will be continually propagated pleasant news
to people, to every person in the whole world, both in Lebanon and in the
Sultanate of Oman. The venerable Qur’an says, “We
created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into
nations and tribes, that ye may know each other,”[2]
and Saint John, the Beloved Disciple and Evangelist says, “The Word was made
flesh and dwelt (set up his tent) among us[3],”
and in these two venerated verses we find a summary of the Liqaa Centre’s
programme – a programme of politics, culture, industry and sociology.
God, may his name be praised,
founded the first liqaa centre by creating man in his image and likeness, and
by becoming incarnate he called the world, its people, humanity to meeting with
him and his love. He called them to love and he made this love the condition
for following him and the foundation of his commandments and the holy teachings
of his Gospel. In fact, he said, “By this shall all men know that ye are my
disciples, if ye have love one to another.[4]”
“For he is our peace,
who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition
between us; having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of
commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new
man, so making peace.[5]”
I would like to give hearty
thanks to the basic team who accompanied the realisation of this unique dream:
bringing this dream to the attention of His Majesty, Sultan Qaboos, preparing
the architectural plans and following all the stages of its realisation. This
team comprises: Rev. Dr. Michel Sabee, Head of our Patriarchal College in
Beirut, who was the contact messenger, bringing this dream of the Patriarch to
His Majesty the Sultan; then there is the Patriarchate’s Economos, Rev.
Economos Elie Shatawi, who undertook the supervision of the project on the
spot; the architect, Mr. Elie Abou Hala and his wife Rosi, who expended all their
experience, art, enthusiasm and faithfulness to make this Centre our
Patriarchate’s finest realisation. Our thanks also go to the engineers and
workers who have worked generously, for the excellent quality of their work. We
give our blessing to the centre’s leadership team who will be working for the
centre’s aims. We wish them success! May the bountiful Saviour amply reward
them!
Your Excellency,
President of the Republic, my brothers and sisters, here is your centre, ready
to welcome you and to host your activities. We hope that you will support this
centre by all means, spiritual and material, at your disposal and through your
thoughts and proposals, and also by finding sponsors for its congresses and
activities. So the Liqaa Centre will be able to realise those projects through
the blessing of the Saviour and through your work and fellowship.
To
you all, my friendship and blessing,
Gregorios
III
Patriarch
of Antioch and All the East,
of
Alexandria and of Jerusalem
Translation from French: V. Chamberlain
[1] The
House of ‘Imran 3: 42
[2] The
Chambers 49: 13
[3]
John 1: 14
[4]
John 13: 35
[5]
Ephesians 2: 14-15