Episcopal Press and News
Episcopalians Continue To Aid Lebanese
Episcopal News Service. March 3, 1983 [83041]
NEW YORK (DPS, Mar. 3) -- Although the fighting has died down and the headlines are less strident, Episcopalians remain sensitive to the continuing needs of the people of Lebanon and the Church's Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief has contributed another $30,000 to a variety of programs for that country and its people.
The funds were disbursed in mid-February to support programs to the Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem, the International YMCA, the Middle East Council of Churches and a center for mentally retarded. Since the appeal began last summer, Church members have contributed more than $280,000 to it.
Half of the funds sent this time were to the Middle East Council through Church World Service. The Council is the agency for long term relief and for the development projects that will be needed to restore Lebanon's social structures. The remaining $15,000 was divided evenly among the other three projects.
The YMCA project has received four grants from the Fund because it is one that is geared directly to the youth with a community development program for the devastated Beirut area. This project seeks to provide training and support for young people so that they are encouraged not to flee Lebanon and are equipped to take a role in rebuilding the economy when that becomes feasible.
Just when real rebuilding may get underway is hard to say, according to the Fund's Director, the Rev. Canon Samir J. Habiby. After a visit to Lebanon, he reported that much of the work still involved direct aid and relief. "These programs are going to go on for a long time," he said. "There are people there who cannot afford to buy their food. There is no money coming into the country. There is no work for many. We will have to continue these programs."
Habiby pointed to the work of the diocese of Jerusalem and the Middle East whose one church in Beirut was destroyed but whose priests there continue to work, supplying food, funds when available and counsel to the people whose lives, homes and families were shattered by the war and the previous civil war.
One institute supported by the diocese -- the Near East School of Theology -- was turned into a clinic and the diocese is still active supplying medical assistance to war victims and aiding students whose income was cut off by the disorders.
The work of the St. Luke's Center for the Mentally Retarded is a separate, but related, aspect of the diocese's ministry. In spite of the wars, the Center is expanding its programs, taking in more students and opening up a new center for vocational training.
Contributions for this work are still being accepted and Habiby and the Fund staff monitor the work that is going on through contact with Anglican, ecumenical and government officials. Gifts may be sent to the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief, Special Lebanon Appeal, 815 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10017.