May 14, 2020
Since its launching in 2004, the Middle East Consultation (MEC)has annually gathered individuals from around the world to explore important issues confronting the Church in the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) region and beyond. When the COVID-19 global crisis struck during the early months of 2020, it became apparent […]
May 7, 2020
by Brent Hamoud Humanity is spending a lot of time at home these days. Stay-at-home orders have largely limited us to private confines resulting in some staggering consequences: half the world’s population was under lockdown at one point, 9 out of 10 students have been left out of school and […]
April 30, 2020
By Martin Accad My two young children (10 and 8) gathered around us a few days ago. My wife and I were going to have a heart-to-heart with them. Though we had so far decided to spare them the feelings of financial insecurity, we felt it was time to have […]
April 23, 2020
by Nabil Habibi One of the more challenging aspects of the biblical world is the focus of the ancients on purity laws. Many ancient Jewish groups and even common people were constantly aware of their ritual purity, especially concerning eating or praying in everyday life.[1] They lived in fear of […]
April 16, 2020
by Rabih Hasbany “We will not celebrate Easter this year …” “There will be no Resurrection Day this year …” In light of the current worldwide lockdown due to the outbreak of coronavirus, many people have lost the opportunity to practice traditional Easter rituals. On Sunday morning, we did not […]
April 9, 2020
by Mike Kuhn …and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour… (Luke 23:44) I confess. I thought pandemics were medieval. Sure I remember SARS and Ebola. But those didn’t get close. They affected others. I caught H1N1 (Swine Flu) but I recovered eventually and life went […]
April 2, 2020
by Caleb Hutcherson A mu’azzin calls people to pray at home, rather than coming together to pray. A church cancels its Sunday services, moving to online broadcasts. A seminary pivots to online instruction, temporarily closing in-person classes. In ordinary times, any of these local changes would barely make the news. […]
March 25, 2020
by Wissam Nasrallah One thing spreading faster than the coronavirus is fear: the fear of the unknown, fear of not being in control, fear of losing our livelihoods, and fear of becoming a social pariah for contracting the virus or simply sneezing[1]. But most of all, we fear death.