Why I leave to Beirut for a few months ?

The desire to gain a deeper understanding, from within, of how a Church lives in the context of the current ME. What are the defining features of its identity, as a small minority within a minority, and as part of the Semitic culture of the ME?

How does theological reflection take place, and how are its pastors trained, in a religious context that is a ‘super-niche’, culturally and politically fragmented, and which has been in crisis for decades?

In a context of precariousness, how is the message and theology distilled to the essentials; how can content be simplified, both for those within and outside the Churches?

To conduct research into a Church that has all but disappeared but which played a fundamental role for nearly a thousand years and to which we owe a great deal: missionary work in the Arab, Syriac, Sogdian, Indian, Chinese and Mongolian worlds; translation between the Greek, Syriac and Muslim-Arab worlds; the preservation of Syriac and Semitic traditions dating back to the early centuries; missionary work without the support of the empire, but rather often discriminated against, persecuted, tolerated yet isolated; focusing its mission on education and translation across different cultures without seeking power for its own sake.

Taking time and nurturing relationships with people living in a context of suffering, resignation and hope – ‘for it is impossible to give up’ – witnesses with a quiet assurance, without pride or pretension, with care given to relationships beyond conflicts.

Stepping out of one’s comfort zone. The vast majority of our churches are either unaware of this or have not yet truly stepped out of it. Yet, for the overwhelming majority of Christians worldwide, being a Christian presents a cultural or social challenge. And the material resources of the communities are meagre, as are those of their pastors. Experiencing something truly new that shifts the focus away from my own lived experience. ‘Courage grows through doing’ (Wiebke Lühmann). There is therefore a certain frustration at seeing the timidity of our churches in attempting something new, something that embodies a vision other than merely maintaining the essence of the status quo …

To draw conclusions from my discoveries over recent years, in particular the principle of the polycentrism of Christianity (C. Lienemann). What we have begun to understand with regard to colonialism in Africa or South America must also apply to the Middle East (P. Frankopan, P. Jenkins). Whilst we now recognize the right of African churches to speak for themselves and develop their own theology, we continue to ignore the voice of the churches of the Middle East regarding life in their own context, and in particular the conflict with Israel (R. Khalidi). This has been a matter of deep concern to me for several years and has become even more so since Israel’s military operations in Gaza, and now in southern Lebanon. There is something amiss in our theology (R. Nasrallah). We must take their context of dispossession, deprivation and violation of rights seriously.

And furthermore: to humbly embark on the path of immanence, that is to say, to act – even at the risk of appearing biased – rather than always merely speaking and theorising without this having any impact on our daily lives