Dec 16, 2013

Amid the positive and negative developments involving Lebanon these days, and the anticipation and anxiety surrounding the upcoming constitutional procedures — from forming a government to the presidential elections — a meeting of Christians will be held in Beirut to consider matters of equal urgency and importance.

The meeting, organized by the Christian Gathering-Beirut, is set to take place the third week in December at Our Lady of Lebanon, the famous Christian shrine in Harissa, northeast of the capital. The large gathering is expected to attract political party representatives as well as prominent and independent Christian political figures, among them members of the Free Patriotic Movement, led by Gen. Michel Aoun, head of the largest Christian ministerial and parliamentary bloc, and the Tashnag, which represents the overwhelming majority of Christian Armenians.

The Christian Gathering was launched on Sept. 2 and includes representatives from the major churches in Lebanon, among them a number of bishops, representing the heads of their churches. On Nov. 2-3, the organization held a Levantine conference in which delegates from Christian groups in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine and Syria participated, in addition to Lebanese churches and Gathering members. An impressive array of Western diplomats also attended. The packed assembly, whose attendees heard news of the suffering of the region’s Christians and various testimonies, concluded by issuing a conference document and establishing a framework for the six countries represented.

The organizers told Al-Monitor that two issues are on the agenda of the upcoming meeting: attacks on Christians in Syria and the fears that jihadist terrorism will take hold in Lebanon with the possible targeting of Christian areas. There have, indeed, been worrying indicators in this latter regard.

Concerning the Syrian situation, attendees will be following up on the fate of the 12 nuns kidnapped Dec. 2 by a Sunni Muslim group from their monastery in Maaloula, northeast of Damascus. They are being held somewhere in Syria. The appearance of the abducted nuns on a video, broadcast on Al Jazeera, angered many Christians. Although the video demonstrated that the women were still alive, it was also clear that they were talking in the presence of their kidnappers. Their crosses had been removed, pointing to the kidnappers as jihadists and raising further concerns about the nuns’ ultimate fate.