2. As organizer of the event, I was contacted by quite a few people from Roman Catholic Churches and Ukrainian Catholic Churches - They knew about the event through the ad that I published in the Catholic Register last month with Fr. Farah's approval. I, therefore, asked Fr. Farah to speak half the material in English during the lectures. Fr. Farah admirably took on the role of a translator to English of all the lectures, while I distributed the two articles you see on the blog prior to this one.
3. What did the lecturers speak about? You may ask! Fr. Khairallah Fares-Maronite Catholic explained how Lebanon is the fount of saints todate. Fr. Pishoy Onse-Coptic Catholic spoke about the spirituality and liturgy of the Coptic tradition. Fr. Yousif Abba-Syriac Catholic spoke about the Syriac Church being the oldest community who still speaks the language of Christ and emphasized the heroic life and model of St. Ephraem the Syriac who defended the dogma proclaimed by the 3rd Ecumenical Council (431AD) that Mary is to be called Theotokos-The Mother of God. Fr. Georges Farah-Melkite Catholic culminated the speeches with a brief history of the Eastern Church and its diverse yet united traditions.
4. The lectures of 4 priests were not all we heard. We had a guest who spoke English only and whom Fr. Farah introduced as a great friend of the Melkite Catholic Church: Fr. Jackman. I asked Fr. Jackman to give us all the final blessing and asked also the attendees to let the priests lead the procession out of the Church to the hall where we had a huge reception by Jesus the King for everyone.
5. As everyone who attended knows, the lectures were interpersed with hymns sung by choirs of the respective Churches. It was a glorious feeling. The Sacred among us! On the way out, Jesus the King Choir sang its popular hymns: The Lord's Prayer, Alleluia, and Axion! Many people I met after the conference congratulated me for organzing a job well-done. I cannot fail here to think of the contributors who planned the conference with me particularly Maged Bebawi for the Arabic transcripts, Fr. Fares for the words and hymns, Fr. Abba and his team for the hymns, Fr. Pishoy for his encouragement, and Fr. Farah who contributed not only his brilliant thoughts, but also much of the food that Jesus the King put on the reception tables. Many more people from Jesus the King contributed to the reception which ended a great religious and social night. Thank God.
6. Why and What next? Asked me Asdaa TV in an interview after the conference. I told them the reason for the conference was to show and experience SOLIDARITY with Christian people who are suffering these days in many parts of the world, especially in the Middle East. The next conference will be sooner than what you think. We are already planning one!
George Farahat, Organizer of the Conference
