The Young Lawyer Who United Lebanons Christians In Worship – Christianity Today

Lebanon has 12 officially registered Christian sects. Jesus prayed the church would be one. Once Designate Merhej did the mathematics, the resolution develop into as soon as cherish. And in January 2024, the 29-300 and sixty five days-ragged Maronite Catholic layman introduced collectively consultant patriarchs, bishops, and pastors from nearly every ecclesial family to pray collectively for the peace of Beirut.

Merhej started planning the tournament three years forward of the Israel-Hezbollah warfare, considering suggestions to bring team spirit to the fractured Lebanese physique of Christ. As the two belligerents exchanged missiles over the nation’s southern border, over 10,000 Lebanese Christians joined in cherish with Merhej’s 300-particular person ecumenical choir and orchestra to pour out their hearts in pursuit of God’s presence.

“Worship is the communal expertise of God’s lordship and grace,” Merhej acknowledged. “The field outdoors—the warfare—is beside the level.”

Merhej aimed to bring a elevated imaginative and prescient to the vexed Christian neighborhood. That January, throughout the reputable week of prayer for Christian team spirit—typically a perfunctory affair—he filled the Beirut Forum with soaring hymnodies of Byzantine chants and intoned hallelujahs. Contributors of the choir, impressed by their interdenominational harmony, wished to preserve performing. And the bishops, he sensed, resonated with his ecclesial imaginative and prescient.

But after the tournament, Merhej stepped support.

As Beirut wrestled with the warfare, Merhej wrestled with God. He got right here to evaluate God wished him to withdraw no longer totally from a shiny tune ministry nonetheless also from his budding relationships with senior clergy participants. At the starting place, he didn’t realize this directive, and for months he let others snatch the initiative. But as he grew in his non-public faith, planning a scaled-support nonetheless same tournament one 300 and sixty five days later helped him discern God’s cause for his rest.

The handsome realms

Growing up, Merhej develop into as soon as largely unaware that local Christians divided themselves between six Catholic, 5 Orthodox, and one Protestant council that involves so a lot of denominations. Theological schisms had slice up the Levant church over the centuries, which further splintered as Vatican, British, and American missionaries competed for mark spanking original church participants from ancient Christian traditions.

In 1974, the newly fashioned Heart East Council of Church buildings (MECC) introduced collectively Jap Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Protestant clergy to red meat up family members among minority Christians. (Catholics joined in 1990.) This day, even supposing the MECC neighborhood has organized a monumental number of service initiatives and theological dialogues, non secular team spirit has no longer prolonged to non secular observe. Some church buildings is no longer going to comprehend communion collectively, nor snatch half in joint liturgical companies.

Merhej grew up in the mountains of Lebanon in a Maronite Catholic neighborhood. Surrounded by Muslim powers for the explanation that seventh century, Lebanon’s superb Christian sect developed a sturdy nonetheless insular faith.

His family also belonged to the Sword of the Spirit charismatic neighborhood, a world Catholic renewal motion originate to diversified Christian traditions and shiny in cherish that goes past liturgy. Merhej learned guitar at age 5, and by age 12 he had played in church. When he develop into as soon as 17, his bishop, Antoine Bou Najem, requested him to lead evening Mass for the formative years in his parish. Two years later, he obtained his first expertise conducting a choir at a cherish tournament for the local trustworthy.

Merhej got right here to cherish helping others connect with God. Three years later, he organized one other even bigger cherish night, and then one other, and one other, even as he stepped forward in his studies and profession, including opening an global-enterprise law firm in 2020.

Merhej’s devotion had repeatedly been to the Father, by Jesus, and in the Holy Spirit, acknowledging that some Catholics elevated Mary too far in their intercession. But as he studied the Scriptures, he got right here to evaluate that in worshiping the Trinity, believers would be half of the saints in communion with God.

At the same time, Merhej develop into as soon as staring at Beirut decay—bodily and spiritually. The port explosion in 2020 coincided with an financial crisis that emptied the capital of of us and enterprise. COVID-19 curtailed motion in the metropolis, nonetheless when society reopened, downtown church buildings of all denominations remained largely empty.

The next 300 and sixty five days, 2021, he approached his bishop with an notion: an ecumenical tournament to cherish with all Christians in their flailing nation. A choir would rejuvenate Beirut, bringing prayer and vitality by rehearsals in the now-accumulated cathedrals.

Bou Najem blessed the initiative and linked him with Catholic and Orthodox leaders. Merhej started going church-to-church to invite lay participation and navigated the struggles between denominations. Protestants equipped a diversified narrate.

Let controversy end

Lebanon’s Protestants hold largely cooperated with every diversified, even when they hold disagreed about taking part with diversified Christians. Some, bask in Presbyterians and Armenian Evangelicals, hold joined the MECC. Others, bask in quite loads of Baptists and Pentecostals, ogle participation in the MECC as forsaking evangelism in alternate for wider Christian fellowship. Most evangelicals transformed from Orthodox or Catholic backgrounds, and deal of Maronites try to preserve Protestant church crops out of their communities. The ancient church buildings accuse evangelicals of sheep stealing, and evangelicals in turn specific their subject over nominal faith.

Concerned for evangelical participation in the choir, Merhej sought out Paul Haidostian, who represents evangelicals as one of MECC’s four presidents. The Armenian Evangelical enthusiastically launched Merhej to diversified pastors in his theological family.

“His have faith the Holy Spirit impressed me, and his style is finish to the evangelical coronary heart,” acknowledged Haidostian. “I need that spirit in our church buildings.”

Merhej won have confidence with clergy by emphasizing that they had been all “shepherds,” appealing to a low-church ecclesiology that did no longer distinguish between pastor and patriarch. Worshiping collectively, he explained, would attend all church leaders revive their non secular flocks. His charismatic background opened doors, and by the level bimonthly rehearsals started in April 2023, Merhej had secured participation from two church buildings on both facets of the evangelical ecumenical divide.

Ephesians 1 impressed Merhej’s imaginative and prescient for the tournament. He wished participants to comprehend Paul’s affirmation that the Christian is “blessed … in the handsome realms” (v. 3) and expertise a glance of the team spirit between “all things in heaven and on earth” (v. 10). The Holy Spirit guarantees this inheritance “to the reward of his glory” (v. 14), which all God’s redeemed—dwelling and dead—can offer collectively.

Interdenominational engagements in Lebanon typically hold every church present its fill choir. Merhej’s imaginative and prescient went past mutual appreciation. Instead, his ecumenical choir facilitated joint cherish by the traditions of all. Evangelicals equipped “How Sizable Thou Art.” Latin Catholics advocate the angelic Gregorian chant “Veni Creator Spiritus.” “Qom Fawlos” drew from ragged Syriac liturgy. Along with “Prokimenon,” acquainted to Greek Orthodox, Merhej selected hymns from all four theological households to uncover reverent welcome to the Holy Spirit, whom he sought to heart at the tournament.

But Merhej develop into as soon as no longer swear to speak a plight checklist representing the 12 Lebanese sects. He incorporated Rachmaninoff’s Russian Orthodox “Bogoroditse Devo.” The Swahili “Baba Yetu”first at a loss for phrases and then happy the viewers. A Spanish Taizé tune quieted the gang, whereas the contemporary French-Arabic “Psaume de la Creation” led the viewers to wave their cell phone flashlights in adoration. As conductor, Merhej informed CT he aimed to gradually bring the entirety of God’s church into the handsome realms. Some in the choir, he acknowledged, spoke in tongues throughout the crescendo.

Diversified messages he more subtly embedded. Two broad church bells rang out mid-service to explain Christian presence in the Heart East. A signal language efficiency highlighted the actual wants neighborhood. And the eighth-century “Ubi Caritas et Amor Deus Ibi Est,” chanted throughout Maundy Thursday foot-washing ceremonies, contained the twin carriageway “let controversies end.”

“We are combating a non secular warfare for our team spirit,” Merhej acknowledged. “Let every church bring its weapons and fight collectively.”

Pruning the fruit

For the length of the evening, church leaders be taught diversified passages of Scripture, and the cloak displayed varied Bible verses, concluding with Jesus’ John 17 prayer “that they is likely to be one as we are one” (v. 22). But no longer lengthy after the tournament, Merhej’s non secular mentors informed him to withdraw from his choir, to stand on my own forward of his Creator. They emphasized Jesus’ phrases two chapters earlier: “Every division that does undergo fruit, he prunes” (15:2).

The wisdom of his mentors had proved factual ceaselessly over the course of his lifestyles, he acknowledged. Scripture is apparent: God prunes us to prepare us to “be necessary more fruitful”(v. 2). And Jesus plight the example; after great miracles, he withdrew to accumulated places. He is the vine, and we—with hands raised in hooked imitation, per the conventional kids’s tune—are the branches.

Merhej complied, nonetheless he did no longer fully realize. Why would God give him such finish family members with senior church leaders if now to no longer stay linked and reemphasize their team spirit? Choir participants had been wanting to preserve singing with their original mates. Merhej had envisioned turning into their non secular mentor and performing in church buildings across the country, hoping this is in a position to spark an ecumenical cherish revival.

Instead, in his absence, even supposing some choir participants drifted away, others joined ensembles with every other or continued to meet to pray collectively. Merhej encouraged a couple of participants to prepare events of their fill and helped coach them. He saw these gatherings as true fruit of a diversified style.

Yet it develop into as soon as no longer the same. And as he waited on God, Israel started a ground operation against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Though the mid-September escalation hit largely Hezbollah targets, Christians had been scared too—no longer least of sectarian implosion. Some closed their doors on displaced Shiites looking out out out refuge, fearing Israeli missiles could follow.

From Merhej’s vantage level, many Christians had been angry. Hezbollah had introduced this warfare to Lebanon, they acknowledged, defending Palestinians who—on the opposite hand true their ancient trigger—introduced destruction to Beirut a half of century earlier as they warred with Israel from Lebanese territory. And whereas Israel develop into as soon as an enemy say, no longer lower than the two would be combating every diversified. The sentiment develop into as soon as understandable, Merhej thought. Nonetheless it develop into as soon as no longer Christian.

Two weeks after the Israeli escalation, Bou Najem summoned the Maronite trustworthy to prayer and requested Merhej to lead cherish. His church neighborhood, four miles northeast of the Beirut port, develop into as soon as in a salvage home removed from Hezbollah leadership or concealed weapon depots. But the bishop’s of us wished peace, and he preached on John 14: “Attain no longer let your hearts be vexed” (v. 27). “Some have confidence in chariots,” he continued from Psalm 20, “nonetheless we have confidence in the determine of the Lord” (v. 7). The 1,000 of us attending answered in reward to God. Some, including Merhej’s of us, started to relieve the Shiites looking out out out local refuge.

“Our cherish is no longer related to politics,” Merhej acknowledged of Lebanese Christian attitudes. “But the hearts of too many hold no longer but changed.”

Addressing deep wounds

The dead November end-fire introduced a semblance of stability to Beirut. Around that very same time, Haidostian reached out on behalf of the MECC to discover if Merhej would convene an ecumenical choir for the January 2025 week-of-prayer service hosted by First Armenian Evangelical Church.

The tournament would be smaller than the old 300 and sixty five days nonetheless the symbolism higher. This 300 and sixty five days’s celebration ended the fiftieth anniversary 300 and sixty five days of MECC’s founding and commenced the 1700th anniversary of the Nicaean Council. Many senior clergy would be there to converse their denomination in a structured program.

As Merhej difficult, he reviewed the liturgy and locked in on the psalm selected by an ecumenical monastic neighborhood in Italy. “My coronary heart is no longer proud,” he be taught from Psalm 131:1, and it resonated. The explore of thousands gathered at the Beirut Forum had filled him with reward for God, no longer for himself. “I attain no longer subject myself with great issues,” the verse continued, and the cause of his pruning started to comprehend form. God had given him collect entry to to patriarchs, bishops, and pastors—all shepherds alike—nonetheless his coronary heart had rushed too immediate toward the hope of stimulating their team spirit.

The next verse in the short psalm arrested him: “But I hold calmed and quieted myself, I am bask in a weaned microscopic one with its mother; bask in a weaned microscopic one I am swear” (v. 2). After final 300 and sixty five days’s tournament, Merhej thought he knew what he develop into as soon as doing. Yet God wished him to procedure no longer true to childlike faith nonetheless to the expertise of a child, fully dependent. The psalm ended with “now and forevermore” (v. 3). Linking the passage with the vine of John 15, he understood necessary more deeply that higher fruit required closing linked to God—and expecting God’s main.

With this chance, Merhej felt God’s affirmation. He well-liked Haidostian’s offer and assembled a 20-member choir with singers drawn essentially from Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant Armenian communities. Among diversified musical offerings, he selected the David Willcocks blueprint of Psalm 131 from the Anglican tradition. The voices resounded by the Gothic sanctuary and closed with the faded “world with out cease. Amen.”

But one other mark of church team spirit develop into as soon as but to procedure. One choir member acknowledged that as an evangelical, she ceaselessly felt appeared down on by Maronites. After years of singing totally in her fill neighborhood, months of rehearsals with Merhej main up to the 2024 tournament helped her expertise that every Christians are one. But outdoors that home, she felt disappointed about the divided say of the church.

What came about next at the 2025 week-of-prayer tournament bowled over her. Most denominations sent decrease-ranking clerics to the gathering, and their sunless robes with red or red natty filled the seats of the chancel. But one determine stood out in prominence. Haidostian had personally reached out to Maronite patriarch Bechara al-Rai, providing him the chance to preach. Al-Rai well-liked, calling disunity “a deep be troubled in the magical physique of Christ.” It develop into as soon as almost definitely the important thing time in history, Haidostian acknowledged, that the high of his denomination had ever preached in an Armenian Evangelical church.

“We now must discover what the church buildings will attain next,” acknowledged Merhej. “Perchance God is doing a brand original element.”