Sisters Who Pray and Support One Another
By Amy Hartsough
Attendees of the 2009 Churchwide Gathering of Presbyterian Women will have the opportunity to learn from and connect with women from around the world. One woman is already familiar to many members of PW — Mary Mikhael, a biblical scholar from Syria, who is the author of the 2009–2010 Horizons Bible study, Joshua: A Journey of Faith.
Mary attended her first PW Gathering while she was a student in New York in the 1980s. This will be her fourth Gathering experience. This year, she is looking forward to meeting new sisters and learning from the worship services and forums. “The most satisfying feeling to me is to be among sisters from so many different parts of the world,” she says.
It was during the 2006 Gathering that Mary was invited to write the study on Joshua. Mary reveals that the Joshua study took a long time to complete because of the circumstances present in Lebanon while she wrote and because of the nature of the book of Joshua. Mary began writing the study during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War, and that time was extremely difficult.
While Mary acknowledges that Joshua is “not the easiest book” she believes that it contains many lessons that are beneficial to Presbyterian women. “I really hope it will benefit every sister who reads it,” she says. Her study focuses on themes such as leadership and justice — themes that affect the lives of people in the Middle East and the entire world. Mary believes that Joshua is not like any other book in the Bible, but that it is “one of the greatest.” She invites all who read the study to join her on this journey of faith.
Presbyterian women in the United States often ask if there are ways to help women in Lebanon. “They can always pray for the situation,” Mary says. “They can show their solidarity by visiting the country and getting to know the women in the churches there. It is wonderful to know we have sisters in this country praying for us and supporting us” she says. She also encourages Presbyterian Women to continue setting an example for the international church by showing that “women can be called to ministry just like men.” Despite her hope that the situation for women in the church is improving, she does not expect that a woman will be ordained in the Middle East in her lifetime.
Mary currently serves as president of the Near East School of Theology (NEST) in Beirut. She was the first female president of this interdenominational Protestant theological seminary. |
