Ramsay F. Dass, MD, President, American Middle East Christians Congress

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On August 23, 2015, a letter to His Holiness Pope Francis and to the Middle East church hierarchy, under the heading “Divided We Fall–What Next?,” was sent to the heads of the Middle East Christian churches in the Middle East and around the world (see attached).
Many of the Middle East church leaders have responded with their opinions, advice, and recommendations. They have agreed with the contents of the letter, but they have yet to move forward with this new concept.

Time is getting short. Our problems have multiplied. More refugees, more destruction of churches and Christian towns, and a louder cry and condemnation from church leadership for the world leadership to move forward with a decisive action in order to reverse what has happened in the past few years to the Middle East Christians and Christianity at large have occurred. And yet, the Middle East church leaders are repeating the same efforts and still falling on deaf ears.

Things must change. What will it take to raise the conscience and change the modus operandi of the Middle East Christian leadership? I do not know, and I may never know unless they re-group, re-organize, and re-activate their energy, churches, and political allies in Europe, America, and elsewhere.

I do not want to sound hopeless because my faith does not allow me to do so. Now, we must all appeal to our church leadership to set their differences aside–be it denomination, country of origin, political inclination, or new geopolitical environment. We must think first for Christians and Christianity in the Middle East because their presence in the Middle East is the factor for the stability and prosperity of the Middle East.

In our living memory, such leadership has changed their course of action in order to have a successful outlook in their cause, such as Mahatma Ghandi fasting to resolve Indian issues prior to independence, Martin Luther King, Jr. to get civic and civil rights for African-Americans, or other leaders. These leaders were not supermen when they started, but they had the wisdom to be simple and directive in order to achieve their cause. I think our Middle East church leadership can match that, if not improve it.

We must continue to motivate and urge our church leadership who have taken it upon themselves as the shepherds in this endeavor. We will continue to pray for their success.

Sincerely yours,
Dr. Ramsay F. Dass, MD
President, American Middle East Christians Congress
Director, Iraqi American Christians Endowment Center
www.middleeastchristian.org / www.amecc.us
Office: (248) 546-9100
Cell: (248) 763-6006

P.S. You may visit our re-edited and revised Fourth Edition of our book, The Middle East Christians: The Untold Story, at www.middleeastchristian.org or www.amecc.us.