The Middle East is home to a wealth of diverse Christian traditions. Nowhere is this more true than in Lebanon, where Christians represent 40% of the population and include Maronite, Orthodox, Melkite, Protestant and Armenian Apostolic believers. SAT-7 celebrates this rich diversity of Christian heritage and worship, and recently filmed a series of music videos in Lebanon which aim to […]
Resurrection Church Beirut (RCB) has become well-known to SAT-7 viewers since we began broadcasting live weekly worship and teaching from there in October 2016. In common with a number of Lebanese congregations, its ministry has mushroomed as it has reached out and welcomed refugees and migrants from across the region. Today, Lily Malky, the church’s Director of Communications, explains how […]
I first met Abou Younes* when he came along to the Life Center Beirut looking for help with food. His journey to Beirut had begun with a harrowing escape from Daesh/Islamic State and involved selling the last of his possessions to pay a smuggler to take his large family across the Syrian border into Lebanon. They just had the […]
After three years of waiting and nine months of relentless conflict, the fight against so-called Islamic State (IS) has seen two major breakthroughs in the last couple of weeks. News from the Church in the region, meanwhile, revealed differing pressures and examples of believers showing great perseverance and responding to adversity with compassion and careful reflection. Iraq’s second city […]
Terror in Ramadan A spate of deadly bombings by so-called Islamic State sent shockwaves as Muslims marked Ramadan, the month of fasting. Meanwhile, in the UK the 6 July publication of the Chilcot report was a timely reminder of how the West is no distant spectator of events unfolding in the Middle East. Actions taken or avoided in the UK […]
Beirut National Evangelical Church pastor Revd Dr Habib Badr tells Wazala why he sees “quality Christian presence” as the key to future peace and inclusion in a fragile and volatile country. A wall of coiled razor wire stands guard over the entrance to Evangelical Church Road in Central Beirut. It’s there not to protect the church but to control access […]
An accidental faux pas sometimes teaches you a lot about a culture. On this occasion it was a warning from a Lebanese friend that saved me – a Lebanese American living in Beirut – from breaking convention. What crime against custom had I been about to commit? Simply, I was planning to wear my very Californian flip flops in public. […]
Well of course a man should beat his wife if she cheats on him!” It has been three years since my friend made that comment with a laugh, as I stared at her with a stunned expression, and yet I still remember it clearly. It was the first time since coming to Lebanon that I realised the depth of the […]
As I mentioned in my previous post, materialism plays a heavy role in Lebanese society. Here, “keeping up with the Joneses” takes on an entirely new dimension. Appearance is important; your reputation is everything. Wedding on the Beirut corniche (cwirtanen/Flickr Commons) Lebanese women are famous for being beautiful. A few years back, when I told a taxi driver in Cairo […]
A Christian children’s home nestled in the Chouf mountains outside Beirut and close to one of the country’s famous Cedars of Lebanon reserves is today aptly named Beit El Safa – “The House of Serenity”. But it wasn’t always this way. Originally donated to the Beirut Free Evangelical Church for summer youth camps, the site was twice occupied by different […]
