The Parish Magazine March 2021

the parish noticeboard — 4
The Persecuted Church
For various tragic reasons Lebanon was in the news during
last year, but their issues have been under-reported.
During October, fires raged along the coast of Syria and
Lebanon, yet there was scant media attention. Garda World
reported that fires burned across Lebanon amid high
temperatures and strong winds, and Army helicopters, and
civil defence teams were dispatched.
The Guardian said the fires broke out in the Mount
Lebanon area and that state media had reported that a
mine exploded in the Wazzani area because of the fires.
Thankfully, no injuries were reported. However, the paper
also reported that a fuel tank exploded inside a Beirut
building, killing four and injuring several.
This was on top of the blast at Beirut’s port on 4 August,
when a massive explosion killed at least 200 people and
injured about 5,000 others. In the aftermath, the Lebanese
government resigned amid growing public anger.
Lebanon also has an economic crisis. In September, VOA
News reported how observers were saying that the country
was in its worst financial crisis since independence in 1943.
Public debt amounts to 150% of GDP, making it one of the
highest in the world.
In 2018 this magazine featured an interview with Esther
Gayfield, an American businesswoman who worked with
refugees in Beirut for a year. She went there again in 2020
and told me that it felt very different. It was 'hard and
heart-breaking to witness,' she said. 'The economic collapse
began to take hold in late 2019, sparking the revolution
and the resignation of the government. A new government
was formed to help them dig out of their crisis, then came
Covid-19, shutting down the economy and crippling society.
'The economic cogs were barely moving again when
the 4 August explosion effectively blew up people's hearts,
their hopes, and their dreams. If they were losing hope
before, the explosion shattered any remaining glimmer into
smithereens.'
She told me that the economic collapse and the explosion
'helped destroy the upper middle class and the middle class.'
The banking crisis and economic collapse meant they lost
access to all their cash: 'They once may have had something
saved for a rainy day. Now it is gone.' she said. 'Then they lost
their houses in the explosion as it largely impacted the more
middle-class and the Christian neighbourhoods.'
In July 2020, Barnabas Fund invited donations for destitute
Christians in Lebanon. They reported that the Lebanese
pound had lost 80% of its value since October 2019. This drove
up prices in a country dependent on imports. Some people,
they also said, had given up using money and were bartering
goods online. Electricity was being cut off for the majority of
the day and there is growing social unrest and crime. They
quoted a Lebanese church leader who wrote that 'We have
many social problems and collapse of family lives … and of
despair dominating, and that hits the faithful community'.
The Parish Magazine - March 2021 13
News, features, and links by Colin Bailey: please read for awareness, and support by prayer,
financial or otherwise. This month the focus is on the crises that have hit Lebanon in the last year.
'Hearts, hopes and dreams shattered by explosion'
HARD AND HEART-BREAKING
FAMILY LIVES COLLAPSED
Beirut properties destroyed by the huge explosion in August 2020
Joseph Khoury, dreamstime.com
Esther Gayfield points out that it is critical to continue
to feed the hungry, especially as 'Lebanon has the number
two worst economy in the world, just behind Venezuela, and
they remain at a dangerous precipice that could send them
tumbling to number one.'
Esther firmly believes that we need to support the
believers in their local communities. Stress and trauma of
staying have made them 'desperate to leave.' She says that it
is a very dangerous place for the church to be. 'Christianity
has been at a precipice in the Middle East for years, and
Lebanon could end up like Iraq, completely devoid of the
Christian community that had existed since Christ's apostles
evangelized the area.'
Also, there are many Syrian Christian refugees in Lebanon,
who have fled war and anti-Christian persecution in Syria.
Very few dare, say Barnabas Fund, to live in the refugee camps
dominated by Muslim Syrians, so they get no help from the
UN and refugee agencies. All the available jobs are needed by
the Lebanese host community, themselves in a terrible plight.
Most Syrian Christians in Lebanon have not been able to get
residency permits.
You can donate to the Barnabas Fund project 'Middle East
Fund to help Christians' via:
https://tinyurl.com/y4swm6wc or 0800 587 4006
Needless to say, the key message is 'Pray for Lebanon'.
Sources and further reading
Garda World on the Lebanon October fires: https://www.garda.com/crisis24/
news-alerts/388146/lebanon-wildfires-continue-to-burn-across-lebanonoctober-10
The Guardian on the Lebanon October fires: https://www.theguardian.
com/world/video/2020/oct/10/wildfires-erupt-in-mount-lebanon-area-afterheatwave-hits-country-video
The Guardian on the October fuel tank blast: https://www.theguardian.com/
world/2020/oct/10/lebanon-beirut-fuel-tank-explodes-in-building-basementkilling-four
BBC on the fire at the Port of Beirut: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/worldmiddle-east-53668493
VOA News on Lebanon’s financial crisis: https://www.voanews.com/middleeast/lebanon-still-facing-financial-crisis-one-month-after-massive-explosion
Barnabas Fund article, Lebanon on the Brink: Help Destitute Christians
Today: https://barnabasfund.org/latest-needs/lebanon-on-the-brink-helpdestitute-christians-today/
Barnabas Fund article: Syrian Christian Refugees Need You! Help Our
Brothers and Sisters Trying to Survive in Lebanon and Armenia: https://
news.barnabasfund.org/syrian-christian-refugees-need-you/