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March 29, 2007
Her Honor
PW grant enabled female judges in Syrian, Lebanese church courts
Catrelia Hunter holds a bound copy of the new Evangelical Churches of Syria and Lebanon constitution, which was revised through a grant from Presbyterian Women.
Photo by Yvonne Hileman
LOUISVILLE – Women can now rule on cases in the courts system of the Evangelical Churches in Syria and Lebanon (ECSL) thanks to help from Presbyterian Women (PW).
The Supreme Council of the ECSL publicly said thank you earlier this month to PW for awarding it a $10,000 grant used to update and amend its constitution to permit the election of women to the church courts, which try personal law cases, including divorces and inheritance rights.
The work has been completed and the new constitution printed and distributed, and during the recent Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly Council meeting here March 13-16 PW was formally recognized for its efforts and given a bound copy of the amended constitution.
The thanks and recognition was passed on from the Rev. Salim Sahiouny, president of the Supreme Council of the ECSL, through GAC Executive Director Linda Bryant Valentine, who spent time with Sahiouny in Lebanon as part of a PC(USA) delegation to the Middle East in January.
The Supreme Council of the Evangelical Churches in Syria and Lebanon is the umbrella organization of various Protestant churches in those countries.
“We believe that it is important for women to participate in the judicial process,” PW Moderator and GAC member Catrelia Hunter said in an interview with the Presbyterian News Service. “We think it’s very important for people to see that women are involved in the process.”
Ultimately, that involvement “will bring more equity … and more justice,” she said.
The grant was awarded through PW’s Thank Offering, a special offering taken each fall and then used to award grants of varying amounts to projects around the world in areas such as health, agriculture, criminal justice and literacy.
Hunter said the grant selection committee examines the applications to determine which will have the greatest impact on people and women’s issues throughout the world. The committee “felt that this particular application would certainly have an impact on the countries of Lebanon and Syria,” she said.
In both Syria and Lebanon, personal law is handled by religious communities and their church courts, and not the government, said the Rev. Victor Makari, coordinator for the PC(USA)’s Middle East Office.
“Civil law is not applied to persons when their personal affairs are regulated by rites, principles and values that are shaped by their religious authorities (scriptures and traditions),” he said.
The constitution of the Supreme Council of the Evangelical Churches in Syria and Lebanon had stipulated that “men” serve on church courts, but has now been updated and amended to include women, Makari said.
“It was unfortunate that women (in Syria and Lebanon) were not allowed to participate fully before,” Hunter said. In that area and around the world, “that particular grant can serve as a model as to what can happen if given the resources.”
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