{"id":6427,"date":"2014-11-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-20T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mwc-cmm.org\/mwc-responds-to-urgent-appeal-from-middle-east-churches\/"},"modified":"2025-04-17T19:35:27","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T19:35:27","slug":"urgent-appeal-middle-east-churches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mwc-cmm.org\/en\/stories\/urgent-appeal-middle-east-churches\/","title":{"rendered":"Urgent appeal from the Middle East"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"text-transform:none\">MWC responds to urgent appeal from Middle East churches<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Bogota, Colombia \u2013 In response to urgent appeals from the Supreme Council of the Evangelical Community in Syria and Lebanon and from the Middle East Council of Churches,&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mwc-cmm.org\/article\/urgent-appeal-middle-east\">Mennonite World Conference issued a call<\/a>&nbsp;for \u201ca shower of prayer, solidarity and blessing\u201d to MWC member churches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a communication to \u201call the Evangelical and Protestant churches and organizations across the world,\u201d the Supreme Council declared a state of emergency \u201cto preserve what remains of the Christian and moderate non-Christian presence in the East, and to circumvent its complete demise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Council also identified \u201cthe possibility of the \u201cannihilation of Christian Presence in the Middle East\u201d and expressed concern about the \u201chuman suffering and political difficulties\u201d faced in these countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MWC also received a statement from the Middle East Council of Churches based in Lebanon calling on the international community \u201cto take bold initiatives and to stand against this fierce attack on the passive Christians of Iraq who remain steadfast in the land of their fathers and forefathers where Christianity started.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are moved to prayer,\u201d wrote MWC leaders in response to the Supreme Council. \u201cWe do want to assure you of the prayers of MWC. We have distributed your urgent appeal to each of the 102 national churches in 57 countries that make up the membership of MWC.\u201d MWC responded in a similar fashion to the Middle East Council of Churches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then in a letter to member churches, MWC General Secretary C\u00e9sar Garc\u00eda and Peace Commission Secretary Robert J. Suderman urged each of the churches to write their own letter directly to the Supreme Council and to the Middle East Council of Churches, \u201cassuring them of your prayers and identifying particular actions that you are doing in response to their appeal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe believe that such a \u2018shower of prayer, solidarity and blessing\u2019 will be highly appreciated by them,\u201d wrote Garc\u00eda and Suderman. \u201cThey will be strengthened just knowing that there are churches around the world praying for them and acting on their behalf.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The letter to MWC member churches was issued on Sunday 21 September, the United Nations International Day of Peace, and the&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mwc-cmm.org\/article\/peace-sunday\">MWC Peace Sunday<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>MWC release<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MWC responds to urgent appeal from Middle East churches Bogota, Colombia \u2013 In response to urgent appeals from the Supreme Council of the Evangelical Community in Syria and Lebanon and from the Middle East Council of Churches,&nbsp;Mennonite World Conference issued a call&nbsp;for \u201ca shower of prayer, solidarity and blessing\u201d to MWC member churches. In a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":86161,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[294],"tags":[871,250,268,270,870],"network":[360,142],"eventcategory":[],"class_list":["post-6427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-urgent-prayers","tag-middle-east","tag-pastoral-letter","tag-peace","tag-prayer","tag-urgent-prayer","network-commissions","network-peace-commission"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Urgent appeal from the Middle East - Mennonite World Conference<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Supreme Council of the Evangelical Community in Syria and Lebanon and the Middle East Council of Churches issued a call\u00a0for \u201ca shower of prayer, 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