'Walk With Us', Michael Haddad
On Friday 15th of February, Mr. Michael Haddad was invited by 'Helping Hand' Society in our church to speak about his experience as a person who faced disability with faith and hope.
Mr. Haddad is a founder of 'Walk With Us' organization that try to create awareness to 250 thousands disabled people in Lebanon. It helps as well to reintegrate those people to be active in their society, reclaiming their rights and improving their abilities.
150 Anniversary of Translating the Bible
On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of publishing the Arabic (Boustani - Van Dyck) version of the Bible an opening service took place at our church on Sunday, November 1, 2015. This was an introduction for a two-day international Conference on the occasion of this translation (PROGRAM). Different evangelical churches along with Coptic, Maronite, and Orthodox churches participated in the Conference.
During the opening service the congregation joined the organist Martin Hollenriegeland sang an old Arabic hymn written by Ibrahim Sarkis who brought the first copy of the Bible from the American Printing Press (a room near our church which does not exist anymore) into the church in 1865.
Rev. HabibBadr, the pastor of the church, and after 35 years of ministry, summed up his spiritual experience of the Bible by saying: "I love the word of God... It is the lamp of my feet and the light of my path".
1517 The Reformation and Its Impact
On the occasion of the 500th anniversary of Reformation Dar Ophir publisher (Amman) in cooperation with Dar Al Manhal publisher (Beirut) launched a new book in Arabic: "1517, Reformation and Its Impact on Aspects of Life" by Rev. Suheil Saoud الإصلاح الانجيلي وتأثيره في نواحي الحياة at the Lebanese American University (LAU) on Saturday, Nov. 25, 2017.
Rev. Habib Badr presented the book during the ceremony and greeted Rev. Saoud for his passion and nobility to write this book to honor his daughter Grace who is suffering from cancer. Rev. Saoud mentioned in the introduction that the illness of his daughter took his soul to the abyss, but through her thankful heart and gratefulness to God, she lifted him to heaven.
Then, Rev. Badr mentioned the relation between the East and the West that resulted in the Protestant churches in this region, and how it was rooted and adopted by the people in the East. Rev. Badr called the attendees attention to the impact of Reformation on the political, economic and social life that changed the people in Europe and later in the ME. It has also been explained that the author’s intention has not been writing a "history" of Reformation but explaining its great effects. Therefore, he pointed to 9 domains, where the influence of Reformation in people's life were clear, such as education, social justice, freedom principle, sciences and other domains.
Rev. Saoud, said Rev. Badr, courageously approached this matter subjectively mentioning the positive and negative sides of Reformation, and mainly the three reformers: Martin Luther, John Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli.
2nd Lebanese Pipe Organ Week
Prof. Bernhard Gfrerer, one of Austria's leading Organists, performed on our church pipe organ many wonderful musical pieces: Mozart, Bach, Wagner, Mendelssohn, Lefébure-Wély, Dubois and Gigout. This is the second consecutive year that Notre Dame University-Louaize and Terra Sancta Organ Festival organizing this Week of organ music in Lebanon. And they concluded the Week celebration at our church on Sunday, Feb.5, 2017. Rev. Habib Badr introduced the organist and welcomed the Apostolic Nuncio to Lebanon, Gabriele Caccia; Ambassador of Austria, Marian Wrba; Head of the School of Music of Notre Dame University–Louaize, Fr. Khalil Rahme, and the superintendent of the Terra Sancta Organ Festival and Delegate for Music of the Custody of the Holy Land, Br. Riccardo.
3rd Lebanese Pipe Organ Week
The 3rd Lebanese Pipe Organ Week in Lebanon was ended at our church on February 4, 2018. The Polish organist Krzysztof Musiał performed 4 pieces to Bach (Adagio and Fugue; Dies sind die heil'gen zehn Gebot; Jesus Christus, unser Heiland; Aus tiefer Not schrei' ich zu Dir), one to Mieczyslaw Surzynski (Elegia, op. 30) and one to August Gottfried Ritter (Sonata in E minor, op. 19).
The organizers (NDU and Terra Sancta Organ Festival) with the initiators (Fr. Seryani and Fr. Rahme) promised to program the opening Week for next year in our church, since the idea was created from the beginning in this place. Fr. Rahme mentioned also the importance of training local people on this great instrument, and that last week two Lebanese and one Syrian musicians played on pipe organ in Tripoli. Rev. Habib said as well that pipe organ music is a sign of our presence in Lebanon and Middle East, and that last December Schneller School had a ceremony to dedicated a renovated pipe organ offered by a church in Scotland to our school.
See the Poster or the Program to learn more about this concerts
