After equipping the production center and establishing the “Manbar Al-Kalima” platform at the Middle East Council of Churches, and launching their operations, and after gathering the Council’s audiovisual archives—a collection of fifty years of work—we are now preparing to launch the Middle East Council of Churches’ television channel and radio station, which will be the voice of the ecumenical movement and of the churches committed to this mission in the region.

 

Because a message that is not shared with people, so that it may affect their hearts and make them better human beings, able to treat their fellow humans well, is as if it never existed, the TV channel and radio station of the MECC, with the support of Tele Lumiere–Noursat and its dedicated leaders, and with the efforts of those who love God and want to spread His word, are now being launched.

 

Preparations for the launch have been completed. Next Monday, with the timing of the Pentecost, the MECC will hold a press conference to announce the start of broadcasting, which in the first stage will be limited to a few hours a day—recurrent several times daily—until it becomes continuous 24-hour broadcasting.

 

It is noteworthy that all of this has been accomplished at “zero” cost, thanks to the support we have received from those concerned and the dedication of colleagues in the Communication and Media Unit—may God bless their efforts and service.

 

The programming network consists of four sections: regular programming, news, liturgy, and Christian education programs and documentaries.

 

These programs cover topics such as family, the history of the ecumenical movement in the region, interviews, church news, positions of church leaders, MECC news, masses, hymns, Christian education programs, and documentaries.

 

This is the initial program lineup which will be developed further as more content is produced and as suggestions come in from stakeholders.

 

In these difficult times, when humanity is witnessing a decline in values, the evaporation of standards, and wild chaos both in life and morals, it is necessary for institutions that uphold and protect values to raise their voice—by all possible means—so that humanity might wake from the deep slumber produced by a society of consumption, extravagance, and luxury, a society that corrupts both morals and the environment.

 

The higher the lamp is raised, the more it lights up wider spaces of the house—the house of humanity that has lost its way to truth and uprightness.

 

This is why we wanted to be an additional lamp contributing to the illumination of humanity’s sky, from the perspective of joint Christian witness, as the churches of the Middle East agreed half a century ago to create this blessed common space.

 

The Middle East Council of Churches’ TV channel will be the voice of those whose mouths have been silenced, whose voices have been stifled, whose livelihoods have been lost, whose homes have been destroyed, whose countries have been confiscated, whose dignity has been violated, and who have been cast into the shadows of suspicion and fear.

 

This channel will be the voice of the united Church of Christ and also the voice of the human community in the face of sectarianism, racism, hate speech, material exploitation, spiritual oppression, and all that prevents a person from reaching his full humanity.

 

This channel speaks in the name of the Son of Man, and thus the intellectual challenge it faces is great, because it speaks the truth—and in our days, truth is a heavy burden. May the Lord bless those who carry it.