Middle East

Celebrate a "Week of Witness"

Churches can still celebrate our long tradition of work for God in the Middle East with worship and study resources for celebrating a "Week of Prayer and Witness with Christians of the Middle East". [Learn more]

Victor Makari, Area Coordinator
Mark McCabe, Administrative Assistant

Mehdi Abhari, special liaison for Iran
Douglas Dicks, regional liaison for Israel, Jordan and Palestine
Nuhad Daoud Tomeh, regional liaison for Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Syria
Art Beals, regional liaison for Turkey

Overview of the region
The Middle East is a region that has been of prayerful concern for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for more than a century and a half. Over the years, educators, theological teachers, medical teams, rural health workers, agricultural experts, engineers and other specialists have been sent as missionaries by the Presbyterian Church to Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Palestine, Israel, Iran, Iraq, other Gulf States and Afghanistan. [Read more]

Related Stories

June 2008 General Assembly calls for peacemaking in Israel/Palestine
April 18, 2008 Christians for Middle East Peace annual conference to gather, continue to push for ‘two-state’ solution
April 20–22, 2008 "Calming the Storm: Middle East Peacemaking in a Turbulent Time" — the Churches for Middle East Peace Annual Conference, Washington, D.C.
January 2008 Presbyterians Today interview with Kenneth Bailey, Middle East's "Forgotten Faithful"
January 3, 2008 Stated Clerk releases statement on plight of Gaza inhabitants
December 5, 2007 [ENI] MECC reaffirms dialogue with Muslims
October 2007 Advocate for Middle East Peace
August 7, 2007 Suicide bombings never justified, majority of Muslims worldwide say
July 2007 Join with Iraqi Christians in a Covenant of Prayer
June 20, 2007 The Amman Call (issued at the International  Peace Conference "Churches Together for Peace and Justice in the Middle East")

Extra Commitment Opportunities

Resources

• The Middle East crisis
• Israel/Palestine background resources
• Presbyterian Mission and Witness in the Middle East
• Churches can still celebrate a "Week of Witness with Christians of the Middle East"
• Fall 2007 Prayers for Peace in the Middle East [U.S. Interreligious Committee for Peace in the Middle East]

Countries

All countries in this area are listed below. Countries with Web pages giving Presbyterian-specific information are highlighted. For other countries, there is currently no PC(USA) involvement in this country or the Web pages have not yet been prepared. The PC(USA) also participates in or relates to work in other countries through ecumenical relationships.

The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, pp. 319–320

November 12
November 13

Overview

The Middle East is a region that has been of prayerful concern for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for more than a century and a half. Over the years, educators, theological teachers, medical teams, rural health workers, agricultural experts, engineers and other specialists have been sent as missionaries by the Presbyterian Church to Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Palestine, Israel, Iran, Iraq, other Gulf States, and Afghanistan. In the 1800s Presbyterians are credited with the establishment of distinguished educational and health institutions in the region. Among those are the American University of Beirut, Beirut College for Women (later called Beirut University College, and now Lebanese American University), the American University at Cairo, an impressive number of high-quality private primary and secondary schools and colleges. The American Mission Hospitals at Tanta and Assiut (Egypt), and Hamlin Hospital in the hills of Lebanon and places where many have experienced the love of God and the healing presence of Christ. Women's formal education was an early initiative of Presbyterians in the region, recognizing that the strength of any society depends primarily on equal opportunities in education. The long vision of Presbyterians for theological education and rural-urban evangelism was primarily responsible for the development and growth of many vibrant new churches and two strong seminaries, one in Cairo (The Evangelical Theological Seminary), and the other in Beirut (The Near East School of Theology).

Today our church's mission commitment is carried out through partnership, with churches, church institutions, ecumenical bodies, Christian development agencies and health care programs seeking to make known the love and compassion of Jesus Christ, and with non-governmental organizations committed to promoting justice, peace, interfaith understanding and cooperation, stewardship of the environment, human and civil rights, religious liberty and the improvement of the quality of life.

Staff

Victor E. Makari, Ph.D., serves on the General Assembly staff of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) as coordinator for the Office of the Middle East and Europe. Before June 2000 he was the area coordinator for the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia.

Makari is a native of Egypt and has been a minister of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) since 1966. Since that time he has been significantly involved in ecumenical and interreligious dialogue and cooperation, both domestically and internationally.

Prior to his service on the national staff in 1990, Makari served for 25 years in three pastorates, as minister of education, associate minister, and senior minister, in Wayne, Pennsylvania, and in Columbus, Ohio, respectively. While in the pastorate he was elected (from 1974 through 1983) as a member (for three three-year terms) and as president (for three one-year terms) of the Program Agency Board, an antecedent of the divisions of the current General Assembly Council.

Makari studied at Assiut American College in Assiut, Egypt, and the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo (B.Th., 1959). In the United States he pursued postgraduate studies at Princeton Seminary (M.Div.,1961-64), Columbia Seminary (Th.M., 1965), and McCormick Seminary (special graduate studies in 1965), and Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism (special studies, Fall 1965). He further studied at Temple University (M.A., 1972, and Ph.D. in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, 1976).

Mark J. McCabe