PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: cathcil@cathcil.org
Web:
PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon
A CANADIAN CHURCH DELEGATION IN ANTELIAS
ANTELIAS, LEBANON – 13 March, 2004 – A Canadian high ranking church
delegation was received by His Holiness Aram I at the Center of the Armenian
Catholicosate of Cilicia, in Antelias, Lebanon. The delegation was
representing the Kairos a Canadian Ecumenical Organization, and the purpose
of its visit to the Middle East was to get a better understanding of the
situation in the region, and to know more about the actual problems and
challenges facing the churches, and express their ecumenical partnership.
The Kairos has been ecumenically involved in the region in the last years,
particularly in the areas of justice, peace, advocacy and accompaniment.
His Holiness Aram I by welcoming the delegation appreciated this important
ecumenical initiative considering it “a concrete sign of growing ecumenical
partnership” between the Churches in the Middle East and the Churches in
Canada. He said: “our mission is one wherever we are; we must together take
the gospel to the world. Our witness to Jesus Christ becomes more credible,
reliable and relevant when we stand together against all forms of injustice
and violence. Christian faith is not a sheer of reflection or meditation. It
is spirituality expressed through action. It is prayer translated into
concrete work. It is mission manifested through committed engagement. The
church cannot be passive in view of the kind of situations and developments
and realities that endanger God’s image in human being and destroy the human
dignity and moral and spiritual values”.
His Holiness than identified those areas of concern in the life of the
churches in the Middle East which require serious attention.
At the end of the meeting reference was made to the Armenian community in
Canada and particularly its growing participation in the life of the
Canadian society in general and in inter-church and inter-religious
participation in general.
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The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the Ecumenical
activities of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician Catholicosate, the
administrative center of the church is located in Antelias, Lebanon.