Calendar 2009 Enec – 12-2009
The current time is not the first in history during which the Arab world occupies the front pages of newspapers. The Gulf War has only accentuated a tension that has now culminated in an eruption. What is less well known is the fact that in this large group, which has about one hundred and fifty million inhabitants and includes the whole of the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa, they live side by side with their Muslim fellow citizens from 12 to 15 million Christians who have played an important role over the years, despite their small numbers. It was after the Islamic Arab conquest that Christians of all denominations began to translate, from Greek and Syriac to Arabic, the literary and scientific works of their predecessors. It was they who introduced the invaders from the desert to the Eastern disciplines (philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, medicine and geography) thus provoking a renaissance that lasted until the Middle Ages, when the Western world was still submerged in darkness. In this regard, it is good to remember that Charlemagne gazed at the gifts sent to him by Haroun el Rashid.
However, the Western world did not take long to evolve: a new wave of Christians, seeking refuge in the West to flee invasions and incessant wars, brought with them their cultural and scientific treasures which were the seeds of the Renaissance in the West. It was in fact the work of the Arab Christians and the Jews that the great work of translation extended from Spain to the whole of Europe. And it was through these translations that San Tommaso discovered the philosophy of Aristotle. Then there was a third renaissance: that of the so-called Arab culture, which languished under Turkish rule and was about to become extinct. It came to life again at the hands of the Christian minority, thanks in particular to the discovery of the printing press, which they were the first to introduce into Lebanon. In the meantime, Vice King Mehemet Ali (the Kedive) opened the doors of Egypt to foreigners. Many Syrian-Lebanese rushed there, standing out particularly in trade and journalism until Nasser’s rise to power. In this regard we want to mention the first newspaper in Arabic, “el ahram”, founded by the Christian Bichara Takla. These are the forgotten pages of the history of Arab Christians that must be brought back to life enriched by personal experience. But this testimony goes beyond the historical note to confront the ongoing discrimination against non-Muslims in Arab countries, discrimination that continues to cause an exodus of considerable proportions. Immigration in a tolerant West offers a favourable terrain for the possibility of beginning to fill the atavistic gap that divides men of different faiths but believers in the same God, the only Allah, father of all men.
We hope that mutual knowledge will help to multiply cultural exchanges between peoples, thus strengthening the bonds of mutual assistance and friendship between nations!
Arab Christian Patriarchates:
Variety in the Cross
Christians in the Middle East, Copts in Egypt, Maronites in Lebanon, Chaldeans in Iraq, Armenians in Turkey, Melkites or Orthodox in Syria, or Palestinians in Bethlehem, have known for more than half a century a silent exodus driven from their lands by war and pressure from Islam. The number of Christian emigrants has been increasing in recent years; those who remain in the Arab countries are constantly decreasing, suffering from the ghetto complex and see an uncertain future. Like the rest of the population, young people, because of the difficulty of finding a job and the housing crisis, prefer to form a family and create a new life elsewhere, with the sad consequence of returning to their native country only as tourists. There are also difficulties and obstacles of various kinds that do not allow Eastern Catholic patriarchs to follow the faithful of their rite in the Diaspora. Therefore the emigration of Christians can mean the condemnation of the Eastern Churches to extinction. An overview of the individual Churches can give an idea of how slender the Christian presence in the Arab world is as heir to the Ottoman Empire.
Communities with deep roots
The populations that in the first centuries of Christianity inhabited the Middle East were formed by indigenous communities and a strong Hellenized component. The great importance of these communities is confirmed by the fact that the Eastern Churches are called “apostolic” because they were founded by the apostles.
The first ecumenical councils recognized the existence of mother Churches, presided over by a patriarch, responsible for the propagation of the Christian faith and the birth of other Churches. The patriarchal institution is common to both the East and the West, and the Bishop of Rome, the patriarchal See of the West, heir to the Apostle Peter, is the patriarch of the West recognized as universal primate, first among the first. The other patriarchal see are in the East, precisely in: Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, mother of all churches and cradle of Christianity.
Christianity had an immediate and remarkable development throughout the Middle East, so much so that the number of Eastern Christians was more numerous than that of Westerners. The Christian East, which in the Patristic era surpassed and eclipsed the Christian West, suffered systematic persecution, physical or moral, and progressive marginalization in areas of Muslim domination. Apart from those who in recent years have been forced to emigrate, giving rise to a real diaspora, the Christian Arabs represent about 10% of the population of the Middle East.
Beyond misunderstandings
Despite the great religious heritage, the life of the Christian communities in the Middle East has been characterized over the centuries by a constant state of misunderstanding. This attitude is due in part to the behaviour of Muslims, who have often identified the Eastern Church with the foreign colonizers of these areas.
The main refugee population in the Middle East is not the Palestinians, victims of the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948, nor the Jews of the Arab countries and Iran, forced into a symmetrical exodus between 1945 and 1979, but Christians of Arab, Aramaic, Armenian or Greek culture. Almost ten million have been induced since the First World War to abandon their homes or to emigrate. Still piously surprising: the exodus of Christians takes place before our eyes in the 21st century, without arousing compassion or media curiosity. The most obvious case is that of the Palestinian Christians of the West Bank: twenty years ago they made up 15% of the local population; after the establishment of an autonomous Palestinian power in 1994, they are no more than 2 or 3%. A similar situation emerges in Egypt, where the Coptic Christian minority, which flourished yesterday, has gradually reduced itself to emigration.
The challenge of radical Islam
Christians have been tolerated by Muslim powers in certain times and places. When circumstances change, this tolerance disappears. The Arab conquest and later the Turkish conquest put in place an identical strategy: some decisive military operation allows Muslims to take political control of a province or a State: the new power then causes divisions among Christians; finally, the Dhimma (protection) regime imposes a mixture of discriminatory measures and financial oppression and pushes Christians to convert, even entire families or communities, a little at a time. Thus a country that was 90% Christian finds itself hosting a Christian minority reduced to a secondary status, forced to emigrate.
In certain Islamic countries the phenomenon accelerates with the growth of fundamentalist or Islamist movements within Muslim society, which preach a permanent jihad and the total exclusion of non-Muslims from areas of ancient Islamization, such as the Arab world.
Currently, since the separation between State and religion does not exist in the Arab Countries, it is only the different application of the Islamic laws which differentiates the “radical” Islam from the “moderate” one. All this in an Islam which, constitutionally, should allow freedom of worship and religious choice, should not prohibit the exercise of certain professions by women and non-Muslims; an Islam where there should be freedom of thought, of religious choice, of equal rights between citizens without any discrimination of sex or belief.
Origins and current configuration of the Eastern Church
In order to resolve theological controversies, many councils were convened, which were influenced by the mixture of imperial and religious powers, thus giving rise to the birth of different Churches that traced the boundaries of the different ethnic groups of the participants.
The Nestorian Church, also known as the Assyrian Church (Council of Ephesus in 431), arose from the refusal to recognize Mary Mother of God. The Coptic and Armenian Churches refused to recognize the two natures in Christ, that is, they affirmed the presence of one nature in Christ, the divine one (Council of Chalcedon in 451). It should be noted that in recent years the main theological questions were spread among the various churches.
In 1054 the schism between Rome and Constantinople created a line of demarcation between Catholics and Orthodox from whom, in the last three centuries, a number of churches were separated to meet in Rome or the Protestant branch.
A characteristic feature of the churches is represented by the rite which consists of the ordering of official prayer and liturgy elements that reflect the identity of the faithful. The identity function is important in the context of the Middle East characterized by a plurality of churches.
The Eastern churches that currently exist under the jurisdiction of the respective patriarch are:
- Greek Orthodox (schism of 1054).
- Greek Melkite Catholic
- Coptic Orthodox (established following the Council of Chalcedon in 451)
- Coptic Catholic
- Syrian Orthodox
- (Syriac) (Jacobite-established after the Council of Chalcedon in 451)
- Siro-Catholic
- Apostolic Armenian (established following the Council of Chalcedon in 451)
- Assyrian of the East (Nestoriana-established after the Council of Ephesus in 431)
- Chaldean
- Maronite
- Latin
With the exception of the Maronite Church, the Eastern Catholic Churches are branches from the Orthodox ones after having recognized the primacy of the Pope, Patriarch of the See of Rome.
By grouping the churches by ancient patriarchate, we obtain the following scheme:
- Patriarchate of Antioch:
– Greek Orthodox Church
– Greek-Melkite Catholic Church
– Syrian Orthodox Church
– Syrian Catholic Church
– Maronite
- Patriarchate of Alexandria:
– Coptic Orthodox Church
– Coptic Catholic Church
– Greek Orthodox Church
- Patriarchate of Jerusalem:
– Greek Orthodox Church
– Armenian-Apostolic Church
– Latin Church
- Patriarchate of Constantinople:
– Greek Orthodox Church
– Apostolic Armenian Church
It was in Antioch that Jesus’ disciples were called “Christians” for the first time. In this city the apostles Peter and Paul resided. From here departed the first missionaries who evangelized Asia and Europe. In cosmopolitan Antioch the disciples of Jesus found the ideal environment for their expansion. In the middle of the fourth century the city had 100,000 faithful (St. John Chrysostom, In St. Ignatium PG 50,591).
Armenian Apostolic Church
Origin: Christianity was introduced into Armenia during the preaching of St. Gregory the Illuminator by King Tiridates I who made it the state religion in 301, 12 years before the Edict of Constantine. The Christian faith for the Armenians was decisive for the definition of their national and cultural identity, which was consolidated in the 4th century with the acquisition of their own alphabet, created by the monk Mesrob Mashtotz. The Armenian church did not adhere to the Christological doctrine affirmed in the Council of Chalcedon (451), preferring a Christological formulation of the Alexandrian tradition that affirmed, with Cyril of Alexandria, the unique nature embodied in the verb of God. It was thus considered Monophysite to the Chalcedon churches.
The Armenian Church is constituted by four autocephalous jurisdictions that together constitute a single Church.
Seat of the Patriarchates:
- Catholicosat dì Etchmiadzin (Armenian Republic): recognized as the supreme spiritual authority of the Armenian Church, it has jurisdiction in the Armenian Republic, territories of the former Soviet Union, Iraq, Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, India and almost all of the diaspora.
- Catholicosat of Cilicia, based in Antelias (Lebanon), has jurisdiction over Lebanon, Syria, Cyprus, Iran, Greece and part of the diaspora from these countries.
- Patriarchate of Jerusalem: responsible for the Armenian Church of the Holy Places in Jerusalem; has jurisdiction over Jerusalem, the Palestinian territories, Israel and Jordan.
- Patriarchate of Istanbul: has jurisdiction over Turkey.
Patriarchal title of the Catholicosat of Etchmiadzín: Catholics of all Armenians.
Liturgy: Armenian rite in classical Armenian language.
Presence in the Middle East: 350,000 (Arabic area); about 540,000 (including Turkey and Iran).
Presence in the Diaspora: a few million, outside of the Armenian Republic and the Middle East, prevalently in Europe, the United States, Canada, South America, Australia. There is a capillary ecclesiastical organization in the diaspora, with dioceses and parishes. The Catholicosat of Etchnizin and Cilicia have separate jurisdictions in North America.
Assyrian Church of the East (Nestorian)
Origin: after the Council of Ephesus (431) it retained the formulation of the Christological dogma proposed by Origen: it retained the formulation of the Christological dogma proposed by Nestorius, condemned by that council, and was therefore considered Nestorian by the other churches. Originally spread in Mesopotamia and Persia, the Assyrian church experienced a great missionary expansion in the middle Ages, reaching India and China. With the Arab invasion a period of progressive decline began, but it was the Mongol invasion of Tamerlane in the 14th century that destroyed this church, reducing it to a few communities in Iraq, Syria and eastern Turkey. After the repressions suffered in Iraq in 1933 most Assyrian Christians migrated to the United States, where the Patriarch also settled.
The Assyrian Church is still present with small communities also in India, the last legacy of its spread in Asia in the middle Ages: at present it counts in Kerala, in Trichur, about 15,000 faithful.
In 1994 the Assyrian Patriarch resident in Illinois signed a declaration of common Christological faith with the Roman Pontiff of the Catholic Church.
The Assyrian Church is still present with small communities also in India, the last legacy of its spread in Asia in the middle Ages: currently it counts in Kerala, in Trichur, about 15,000 faithful.
In 1994 the Assyrian Patriarch resident in Illinois signed a declaration of common Christological faith with the Roman Pontiff of the Catholic Church.
Seat of the Patriarchates: since 1968 there has been a schism within the Assyrian Church which has given rise to two patriarchates: one with its seat in Morton Grove (Illinois, USA), in succession with the previous patriarchal line, the other with its seat in Baghdad; the schism is currently being settled in favour of the Catholicos resident in the United States, which represents the legitimate succession. Patriarchal title: Catholicos of the Church of the East.
Liturgy: Siro-Eastern rite, also called Persian or Chaldean, in Syriac.
Presence in the Middle East: 110,300 (Arab area); about 122,000 (including Turkey and Iran).
Presence in the Diaspora: about 130,000 mainly in the United States, Canada, Australia. There is an ecclesiastical organization in the diaspora under the jurisdiction of the Assyrian Patriarchate based in Illinois.
Chaldean Church
Origin: in 1552 by detachment from the Assyrian Church of the East: a group of bishops opposed the nomination by inheritance of the Patriarch, at the same time demanding union with the Church of Rome; in 1553 Pope Julius III consecrated the elected abbot as bishop and proclaimed him Patriarch of all Chaldeans.
Seat of the Patriarchate: Baghdad (Iraq).
Patriarchal title, Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans.
Liturgy: Siro-Eastern rite, also called Persian or Chaldean, in Syriac and Arabic.
Presence in the Middle East: from 402,400 (R Fargues) to about 525,000 (local church estimates) in the Arab area; about 3,000 in Turkey, 10,000 in Iran. The data does not take into account emigration following the last war in Iraq.
Presence in the Diaspora: about 120,000 mainly in France, Northern European countries, the United States and Australia. There is an incipient ecclesiastical organization in the diaspora, with a Chaldean diocese in the United States and parishes in other states.
Coptic Orthodox Church
Origin: The Coptic Church was founded in Egypt in the first century AD by the sermons of the Apostle Mark, who wrote the second Gospel in the first century AD, and brought Christianity to Egypt at the time of Emperor Nero. It is one of the Eastern Orthodox churches. The first Coptic monks lived in Egypt during the 4th century, many of them died as martyrs. During the 4th and 5th centuries the Coptic Church separated from the Greek Church because of a dispute concerning the nature of Christ; it did not adhere to the Council of Chalcedon (451) preferring a Christological formulation of Alexandrian tradition which affirmed, following the Patriarch Cyril of Alexandria, the unique incarnated nature of the Word of God. She was considered Monophysite until 1973 when she signed a document of Christological faith in common with the Patriarchate of Rome (Pope Paul VI).
Seat of the Patriarchate: Cairo.
Patriarchal title: Patriarch of Alexandria and all Africa also called pope. The Coptic Church has its own pope, Shenuda III, and is Patriarch number 117 since the preaching of St. Mark. Liturgy: Alexandrian rite in Arabic and Coptic.
Faithful: 8,000,000 in great majority in Egypt.
The Coptic Orthodox Church is concentrated in Egypt and Ethiopia. In Egypt this community represents the strongest Christian concentration in the whole Middle East. However, we should not forget the approximately 18 million Copts in Ethiopia, who maintain close religious ties with the Egyptians.
The Copts are present in Egypt in a widespread way in all villages, even in the poorest ones. These communities are often forgotten and abandoned to themselves: the only sign of the Christian faith inherited from their fathers is often a tattoo in the shape of a cross. It is therefore an extremely fragile and therefore not lasting link with the Church. Conversions to Islam are therefore frequent both because of marriages and to escape discrimination. Coptic communities generally tend to avoid being too visible, a fact that has greatly facilitated their survival over the centuries: where in fact in the Middle East the presence of Christians has been more exuberant, the harassment has been greater. With the increase in the activity of Islamic fundamentalists since the end of the 1970s, the living conditions of the Copts in Egypt have worsened. Between 1981 and 1985, Pope Shenuda III was held under house arrest in a monastery in the desert.
Diaspora: about five hundred thousand; In the last 30 years many have emigrated to the Americas and partly to Europe as a result of discrimination by the authorities accompanied by massacres that went unpunished. An episcopal see was created on the outskirts of Milan.
Coptic Catholic Church
Detached from the Orthodox one in the 18th century, it has been governed by a patriarchate since the 19th century.
Seat of the Patriarchate: Cairo.
Patriarchal title: Patriarch of Alexandria of the Copts.
Liturgy: Alexandrian rite in Arabic and Coptic.
Faithful: about three hundred thousand with some in diaspora in which Coptic-Catholic parishes are under the jurisdiction of Latin ordinaries.
Christmas is celebrated on January 7 instead of December 25.
Greek Orthodox Church in the Middle East
Orthodoxy is one of the three major branches of Christianity. The history of the Christian Church begins with the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles in Jerusalem during the feast of Pentecost. The Orthodox churches of the various nations are autocephalous, i.e. they govern themselves autonomously while recognizing a primacy of honour to the Patriarch of Constantinople. The heads of the autocephalous churches can be called patriarch, metropolitan, or archbishop. These prelates are presidents of synods, which, in every church, constitute the highest canonical, doctrinal and administrative authority. In the Councils of the fourth century of Christianity the cities of Jerusalem, Antioch and Alexandria were elevated to seats of patriarchy. Among the various Orthodox churches there is an order of precedence, which is determined by history rather than current numerical presence. Orthodoxy has always attached great importance to the place of Councils in the life of the Church. Its origin was given by the Council of Chalcedon (451) which accepted the Christological definition of the two natures in Christ unlike those who rejected it; some Arab churches detached themselves from the authority of the Greek patriarch by forming independent local churches.
The separation between Orthodox and Catholics took place in 1054, in an official manner, with mutual excommunications. Only in 1967 were they abolished in a meeting between Pope Paul VI and the Patriarch of Constantinople Athenagoras.
Seat of the Patriarchates:
Alexandria: Patriarch of Alexandria and all of Africa, Greek-speaking, with jurisdiction over Egypt and African countries.
Damascus: Patriarch of Antioch and all the East, Arabic-speaking, with jurisdiction over Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran and part of its diaspora.
Jerusalem: Patriarch of Jerusalem, Greek-speaking, with custody responsibility for the holy sites of the Greek Orthodox Church with jurisdiction over Jerusalem, the Palestinian territories, Israel and Jordan. Istanbul: Patriarch of Constantipolis with jurisdiction over Turkey, some small areas of Greece and much of the world’s Greek Orthodox diaspora.
Liturgy:
As a remnant of history, with the exception of the patriarchate of Damascus, the other seats are occupied by bishops and part of the Greek-speaking clergy despite the fact that the faithful are Arabs. Faithful in the Middle East: about one million.
Diaspora: about 400,000 Greek Orthodox Arabs under the jurisdiction of the Arab Patriarch of Antioch.
Greek-Melkite-Catholic Church
After having detached from the Orthodox one in the 17th century (even if there was no official break in the past with the Church of Rome), it has been governed by a patriarchate since 1724, repeating its recognition of the primacy of the Pope, Patriarch of Rome. The profound reason for the detachment was to want to protect the Arab Christian heritage in the face of pressure from the Ottoman Caliph and to be able to improve the formation of the Arab clergy in contact with the arrival of the Latin missionaries. During the Ottoman domination, the Sultan had delegated to the Greek Patriarch of Constantinople authority over all Arab-majority Eastern Christianity, causing harassment and discontent among the Arab faithful. Despite the Hellenization of the Patriarchates of Jerusalem and Alexandria, the clergy of the Patriarchate of Antioch succeeded in maintaining Arabic as the liturgical language of religious services and never adhered to the schism of the East. The Melkite Church follows the liturgy, theology and Byzantine spirituality that represents the tradition of the Middle East.
Seat of the Patriarchate: Damascus.
Patriarchal title: Patriarch of Antioch and all the East, Jerusalem and Alexandria.
Liturgy: Byzantine rite in Arabic.
Faithful: about 1,200,000 scattered throughout the Middle East with a strong concentration in Syria and Lebanon, small but influential minorities in the rest of the Arab world and a diaspora for 50% in Europe, the Americas and Australia. There is a Melkite ecclesiastical organization in the Diaspora with dioceses and parishes.
The Melkite Church has always made itself a paladin to create a bridge between East and West, the first step towards union between the Arab, Orthodox and Catholic faithful, each maintaining its autonomy.
https://www.mliles.com/melkite/
Maronite Church:
Origin: in the fourth century a group of disciples gathered around San Marone, who later founded a monastery between Antioch and Aleppo; the monastery, although within the patriarchate of Antioch developed its own traditions, and in the fifth century was a strong proponent of Chalcedonese Christology as were the Melkites. To escape the persecution of churches contrary to Chalcedonese doctrine, two natures in Christ, and later the Muslim invaders, withdrew in the seventh century to the mountains of Lebanon. Its mountains, already known in antiquity for their valuable forests, proved to be a safe haven for ethnic and religious minorities from the years immediately following the Arab conquest of Syria. From this period of isolation they became an autonomous church: they began to elect their own bishop. In 1182, on the occasion of renewed contacts with Latin Catholics during the Crusader period, the Maronites confirmed their union with the Church of Rome, saying that they had never renounced their communion with it. And that an Eastern Catholic church that was not born of separation from an Orthodox church.
Seat of the Patriarchate: Bkérké (Lebanon).
Patriarchal title: Patriarch of Antioch and all the East of the Maronites.
Liturgy: Antiochene rite in Syrian and Arabic.
Presence in the Middle East: about 800,000 concentrated in Lebanon. The constitutional order of the Lebanese republic provides that the office of president is reserved for a Maronite Christian.
Diaspora: about 3 million in the Americas, Australia and Europe. There is an ecclesiastical organization in the diaspora with dioceses and parishes.
The Syrian (Jacobite) church of Antakya
Syrian Orthodox Church:
Syria was the battleground of Christological controversy, the origin of religious division in the East. In fact, in 451 the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon condemned monophysism (Christ would have only one nature) and proclaimed the official doctrine and the human, in one person. The majority of the Syrian population did not accept the Council’s decisions, preferring a Christological formulation of Alexandrian tradition which affirmed, with Cyril of Alexandria, the unique incarnated nature of the Word of God, more out of misunderstanding of words than theological differences, and separated from the Church of Constantinople. They were thus considered monophysites of the Chalcedon-Orthodox churches and were called the Jacobite Church. The Jacobite Church experienced an extraordinary monastic flourishing in the early centuries.
After a moderate expansion in the East, the Jacobite church was hit hard by the Mongol invasion of Tamerlane in the 14th century, and its greater presence was concentrated in the area of Middle Eastern Origin.
Since the 17th century, the Malankarian Syrian Orthodox Church, present today in India with over a million faithful, has been under the control of the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch. In 1984 the Patriarch signed with the Roman Pontiff of the Catholic Church a document affirming the common Christological faith, admitting the faithful to mutual sacramental communion and allowing the reciprocal formation of candidates for the priesthood. The bishops are elected from among the monks. Both are celibate, not so the rural clergy.
Seat of the patriarchate: Damascus.
Patriarchal title: Patriarch of Antioch and the entire East. The Syriac Church, like all Eastern Churches, has a patriarchal structure. Its head is presented as “Patriarch of Antioch and the entire East”. He is considered the direct and legitimate heir of the early Apostolic Church of Antioch, ruled by the first bishop-martyr St. Ignatius.
Liturgy: Antiochenean rite in Syriac
Presence in the Middle East: about 150,000
Presence in the Diaspora: about 150,000, mainly in Northern Europe, USA and Canada, Australia. There is an ecclesiastical organization in the Diaspora, with dioceses and parishes.
Siro-Catholic Church
Detached from the Orthodox one in the 17th century, it is governed by a patriarchate since 1724 accepting the primacy of the bishop of Rome, and maintain original liturgy and traditions handed down over the centuries.
Seat of the Patriarchate: Beirut.
Patriarchal title: Patriarch of Antochia and the Syrians
Liturgy: Antiochene rite in Syrian and Arabic
Presence in the Middle East.- approx. 100,000
Presence in the Diaspora: several thousand, mainly in Northern Europe, the United States and Australia.
There are only parishes and chaplaincies under the jurisdiction of Latin ordinaries.
Latin Church in the Middle East:
Origin: after an initial spread in the 11th century on the occasion of the Crusades and the Latin Kingdoms, the Latin Catholic Church had new expansion in the Middle East in the 19th century through the work of missionaries to the Eastern Christian communities. In 1847 the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem was restored with the appointment of the new Patriarch, which has jurisdiction over the Latin faithful of its diocese including Jordan, Palestine, Israel and Cyprus. The other Latin Catholics of the Middle East depend on their respective Apostolic Vicars.
See of the Patriarchate: Jerusalem.
Patriarchal title: Patriarch of Jerusalem of the Latins
Liturgy: Latin rite in Latin and Arabic.
Presence in the Middle East Arabic: 86,300 (of which about 63,300 under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Jerusalem).
Protestant Churches in the Middle East
Originally, the churches and various Protestant denominations spread to the Middle East from the 19th century onwards through the work of European and American missionaries to the Eastern Christian communities. There are currently about eleven different Protestant denominations in the Arab Middle East which are part of the Council of Churches of the Middle East: the Evangelical Episcopal Churches, the Lutheran Church, the Presbyterian Church and five other different Evangelical Churches to which the National Evangelical Union of Lebanon and the Union of Armenian Evangelical Churches of the Middle East belong.
New evangelical movements must be added to the established churches.
The Protestant churches have ongoing ecumenical dialogues with both the Catholic Church and the other Chalcedon and non-Chalcedon Eastern Churches. Despite the small number of faithful, they are very active in public life.
Liturgy: according to their respective reformed liturgical traditions.
Presence in the Arab Middle East
Giuseppe Samir Eid
Free web translation from the original in Italian
The published articles intend to provide the tools for a social inclusion of the migratory flow, shed light on human rights and the condition of life of Christians in the Islamic world from which the author come from. Knowledge of the other, of cultural and religious differences are primary ingredients to create peace in the hearts of men everywhere, a prerequisite for a peaceful coexistence and convinced citizenship in the territory.