Middle East churches face up to 21st century challenges

THE PRIORITIES for the Church in the Middle East include bearing witness, even to the point of martyrdom, a major conference of church leaders from the region has said.

The group of 40 Christian ministers and laypeople from Pakistan to Tunisia, and Egypt to the Sudan gathered in Dubai last week to consult on the challenges facing the church in this region where the church is often a small minority and to set priorities for its future work.

Other priorities agreed at the meeting were building up of the church to be able to be resilient in the face of threats and setbacks, research into who are the churches ministering to and what are their needs, developing good communications both through mainstream and social media and reaching the marginalized and those with health issues.

These priorities were outlined by the chair of the meeting, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, president of the Oxford Centre for Training Research Advocacy and Dialogue and himself a former Bishop in Pakistan.

The meeting was also attended by organisations based in European and American churches who were eager to learn from their experience and vision.

Stories of heroes of the faith in the region need recording, especially of pioneers in the region who were now very elderly so that the small churches can be inspired by their past.

There were also calls that research is needed into the real numbers of Christian believers. For example the official statistics for Christians in Pakistan are 2 million, whereas the actual figure is nearer 8 million. This is also the case with Egypt.

Delegates also said that research is needed into why intergenerational poverty persists in some Christian communities, and into the large number of early Christian resources available in Arabic from which the western academy could also learn.

Greater attention needed to be given to the education of Christian children by their parents and to the opportunities afforded to clergy by the existence of church schools in some situations.

The social needs of populations were not forgotten. In Dubai 70 per cent of the population are male, many of them guest workers living in labour camps. These are dormitories that house 54 per cent of the labour force. Work among the disabled in North Africa sought to transform the views disabled people had of themselves so that they gained true dignity and identity in Christ.

Partners present noted the value of the gathering for those in highly pressured situations to learn of needs beyond their own context to realize that they were not the only ones with needs.

Difficulties were honestly faced. In Turkey Christians have been unable to register buildings as churches; in Pakistan the blasphemy law is still formally in place and though arrests are made, no executions have taken place. There is little freedom of worship in Iran though it is reported that many are becoming Christians there. In some countries even criticism of the government leads to arrest and disappearance.

Among inspiration and encouragements were the growth of Protestant Christians in Turkey over the last 40 years from a handful to 5,000, and the warm reception given to Alpha courses in Egypt where more people of other faiths than Christians attended their courses on Marriage and on Parenting.

Fruitful collaboration beyond denominational boundaries was often reported.

Middle East churches face up to 21st century challenges