Lebanon Report

“TRUE LIFE IN GOD” ECUMENICAL WITNESSING

IN THE HALL OF “ALL SAINTS EPISCOPAL CHURCH” DOWNTOWN BEIRUT

The audience from 6 different church denominations, including 7 clergymen, 2 of whom are Bishops

“…it is on account of uniting you that I have prompted you with My Messages of Unity“
March 27, 1992

True life in God, Lebanon, has recently organized an Ecumenical Meeting on Monday March 27, 2006 in the hall of “All Saints Episcopal Church” in Downtown Beirut.

It all started as the witness and the organizer became both inspired to do a special witnessing different from those accomplished until now. We wanted to invite Clergy from different Church denominations to an Ecumenical Meeting (Witnessing) about Unity. We couldn’t do it in January in “Unity Week” because we didn’t have time to prepare as the idea came out in December, so we made a few contacts and the Lord allowed that the Episcopal (Anglican) Church in Lebanon offered us their Hall with great generosity. It was not the first time that the Episcopal Church in Lebanon opened its doors to us, through Reverend George al-Kopti Rector of “All Saints Church”. Rev. al-Kopti had given us before, in agreement with Rev. Saoud (Presbyterian), the hour of the Weekly Bible Study they usually have to witness for True Life in God and both Anglican and Presbyterian believers were present since they share weekly the Bible Study.

The Invitation Card (translated from Arabic)

After fixing the location, we prepared the invitation cards for the clergy and distributed them. We started by focusing on the Clergy who already were given the CDF or other TLIG material but have never been to a TLIG witnessing. We also invited new people that we picked with discernment who were also given a file to introduce TLIG messages, the instrument “Vassula”, testimonies from Ecumenical Bishops and our fruits.

We were overwhelmed with Joy when the Association of the Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops in Lebanon sent His eminence Flavian Joseph Melki Vice-Patriarch from the Syrian Catholic Church as a representative. We were also blessed with the presence of His eminence Chucrallah Nabil El Hage, Maronite Archbishop of Tyr. The presence of Rev. Souheil Saoud, from the Presbyterian Church, as a representative of Rev. Doc. Salim Sahyouni, was another blessing from the Lord. Also in attendance were Fr. Gabriel Hachem, director of “Faith and Unity” section at the Middle East Council of Churches, Fr. Frangois from the Greek Melkite Catholic Church, and Rev. Imad Zoorob from the Episcopal Church who is the director of the St. Luke Association for Persons with special needs.

We immediately felt God’s great work in this witnessing especially that the audience included 6 different Church Denominations: Syrian Catholic, Episcopal (Anglican), Greek Orthodox, Presbyterian, Maronite and Greek Melkite Catholic.

The organizer, Engineer Chadi Choufani, started with the “Our Father” prayer, the united Arabic version, taken from The Middle East Council of Churches. Then, he introduced Engineer Michel Hissab who presented the True Life in God’s beginnings and Vassula as the instrument used by God. His Powerpoint presentation also included details about the fruits of TLIG (Prayer groups and Beth Myriam), about TLIG Ecumenical Pilgrimage 2005 and the latest communication of Vassula with the Vatican.

After that, Chadi introduced the witness, Yolla Abou Jaoudi who spoke about the contents of the “True Life in God” call and she focused on: the call for reconciliation and unity, the Holy Spirit’s role in the path of Christians towards Unity and the relentless repentance. After her speech, Yolla invited Rev. George al-Kopti to end the meeting with a prayer. Then we had some refreshments and some pastries. Everyone mingled and chatted taking a look or purchasing some of the articles displayed: books, DVDs, videos and some other articles in Arabic, French and English.

Rev. al-Kopti ending the meeting with a prayer

Later, at the request of some of the attendees, Rev. al-Kopti showed them the Church from inside and he explained about it and about the “Cross of nails”.

Left: Rev. al-Kopti explaining about the Church to some participants. Right: The Altar of “All Saints Anglican Church” in Downtown Beirut.

After all that, we went with the clergy to dinner at a restaurant in Beirut. We had informed them earlier and we wanted it to be a small dinner to be able to converse. At dinner, we discussed many issues concerning unity, God speaking through a person in our times and True Life in God messages. His eminence Melki had different points he noted during the witnessing and we gave him a file with only the text of the witnessing of that day to be given through him to the Association of the Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops in Lebanon. We noticed that this file was important and valued and we thank God who inspired us to prepare it. After dinner we gave the Clergy a file with Cardinal Sfeir’s words of welcome, testimonies of Ecumenical Bishops, Vassula’s “Renunciation” talk, our visit to the Lebanese President, the welcome of Mr. Biltaji, Advisor to the King of Jordan, pictures from the 2005 Ecumenical Pilgrimage, the text of the witnessing of that day (March 27, 2006), and the fruits of True Life in God with pictures of Beth Myriam Lebanon.

Through this event, God has opened new doors and new places for us to witness. Relations with the different churches and True Life in God are being created. We pray that he will always help us stay small so that he is free to accomplish miracles through us. Praised be His Name for ever and ever!

At dinner: His eminence Melki (third from the left), Rev. al-Kopti (first from the left)

At dinner: His eminence El Hage (second from the right), Rev. Saoud (third from the right), Fr. Hachem (fourth from the right)

Chadi Choufani
TLIG Evangelisation Lebanon 2006