Episcopal Press and News

Future of Christian Church Lies with Muslims in Middle East

Episcopal News Service. November 9, 1995 [95-1301C]

Roy Kietzman

(ENS) General Secretary Riad Jarjour of the Middle East Council of Churches told Christian leaders in the Persian Gulf that "the future of the Christian church in the Middle East lies in the midst of the Muslim community." He said that God's will is expressed in "humanity's cry for a society where neighbors live in peace, uphold one another's dignity and advocate justice for all." He admitted to participants that the MECC has been under pressure from two Middle East Anglican bishops for overlooking the Persian Gulf and its million Christians, most of them foreign workers from Asia. The Rev. Derek Taylor, provost of St. Christopher's Anglican Cathedral in Bahrain, told Jarjour that he was delighted with the "recognition of our witness and ministry in this part of the Gulf. We have felt cut off from the life of the church in the rest of the Middle East." Jarjour said that the advent of the petroleum age had unleashed "a spirit of materialism which, as many Gulf Muslim leaders have recognized, calls for a spiritual response. He said that "the council, in all humility and with deep respect for the spiritual resilience of Islam, offers its encouragement to the churches who have ministered to the migrant and expatriate communities of the Gulf and its cooperation with the Muslim community in facing this present crisis."