During the Ecumenical Prayer Service’s reception cohosted by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and In Defense of Christians (IDC), the nation’s leading advocacy organization for Christians and religious minorities in the Middle East and Africa, HRH Prince Gharios El Chemor met with His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros (Lambriniadis) of America, Most Honorable Exarch of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, (the eighth Archbishop of America elected since the establishment of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in 1922) The event took place at Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Washington, DC on last July 14.

Below some candid moments with His Eminence and His Excellency Prof. Dr. Thomas Schirrmacher, Secretary General of the WEA – World Evangelical Alliance

HRH Prince Gharios El Chemor joined spiritual leaders representing Christians and Muslims from around the world in the Masjid Muhammad, the Nation’s Mosque, in Washington, DC on July 13 to discuss relations between the two communities and celebrate the launch of a book titled, God Needs No Defense: Reimagining Muslim – Christian Relations in the 21st Century. More details here

The volume 46, number 46 of the Muslim Journal, America’s largest Muslim newspaper, featured the prince’s participation on the aforementioned event.

You may download the Muslim journal’s full edition here

HRH Prince Gharios E Chemor joined In Defense of Christians (IDC), the nation’s leading advocacy organization for Christians and religious minorities in the Middle East and Africa, for an Ecumenical Prayer Service with the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America at Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Washington, DC on last July 14.

The Ecumenical Prayer Service fell on the one-year anniversary of the reconversion of the Hagia Sophia cathedral in Istanbul, Turkey, into a mosque, and solemnly commemorated the event.

Hagia Sophia (/ˈhɑːɡiə soʊˈfiːə/; (Turkish: Ayasofya, Koinē Greek: Ἁγία Σοφία, romanized: Hagía Sophía; Latin: Sancta Sophia, lit. ‘Holy Wisdom‘), a Late Antiqueplace of worship in Istanbul, designed by the Greek geometers Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles. Built in 537 as the patriarchal cathedral of the imperial capital of Constantinople, it was the largest Christian church of the eastern Roman Empire (the Byzantine Empire) and the Eastern Orthodox Church, except during the Latin Empire from 1204 to 1261, when it became the city’s Latin Catholic cathedral. In 1453, after the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire, it was converted into a mosque. In 1935, the secular Turkish Republic established it as a museum. In 2020, it controversially re-opened as a mosque.

Various Christian traditions were represented at the Ecumenical Prayer Service including Archbishop Thomas Schirrmacher, the Secretary General of the WEA – World Evangelical Alliance, the second largest Christian organization in the world with 600 million members.

You may watch the ecumenical service below:

The One Voice Foundation, an inter religious arm of the Royal House of Ghassan, was officially launched in Beirut, Lebanon, yesterday. Unfortunately, due to Covid-19 travel restrictions, HRH Prince Gharios El Chemor, the foundation’s co-founder and chairman, couldn’t attend.

The Foundation launched its first social activity with an intellectual symposium entitled “Lebanon One Living: Uniqueness and Challenges”, in which Judge Dr. Abbas Al-Halabi, Dr. Harith Suleiman, Dr. Ahmed Al-Zoubi and researcher Ziad Al-Sayegh, and moderated by lawyer Rola Elia .

The seminar, was held yesterday at the Monastery of Our Lady of the Bir. Bqania, with a speech by the association’s president, Antoine Kalajian, in which defined the association’s goals and plans for social, civil and cultural development, and building active and responsible citizenship in a civil state.

More info: http://www.onevoicechristians.org/

HRH Prince Gharios El Chemor joined spiritual leaders representing Christians and Muslims from around the world in the Masjid Muhammad, the Nation’s Mosque, in Washington, DC on July 13 to discuss relations between the two communities and celebrate the launch of a book titled, God Needs No Defense: Reimagining Muslim – Christian Relations in the 21st Century.

The main organizations behind the event were Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama, the world’s largest Muslim organization; and the World Evangelical Alliance, a network of churches which represent 600 million evangelical Christians, lead by Dr. Thomas Schirrmacher, Secretary General/CEO of the World Evangelical Alliance, currently the second Christian leader in the world, second only to the Catholic Pope.

Imam Talib M. Shareef, President of the Masjid Muhammad, the organization hosting the event, pointed to the fact that “We are one human family under Almighty God” as a reason to recast Muslim-Christian relations, which have been strained by various conflicts in history.

The event closed with a signing of the Nation’s Mosque Statement by representatives of the three sponsoring organizations, HRH Prince Gharios El Chemor, the only secular Christian leader in the Middle East with historical legitimacy (according to the Global Imams Council, the largest non-governmental body of Muslim leaders) and other religious leaders in the audience.

The statement reads: “Spiritual leaders of Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama, the world’s largest Muslim organization; the World Evangelical Alliance which represents 600 million protestants in 140 countries; and Masjid Muhammad, The Nation’s Mosque, a community of the late Imam W. Deen Mohammed, in Washington, DC, the first mosque in the United States built by descendants of enslaved African Americans, call upon people of good will of every faith and nation to join in building a global alliance founded upon shared civilizational values. This global alliance seeks to prevent the political weaponization of identity, curtail the spread of communal hatred, promote solidarity and respect among the diverse people, cultures, and nations of the world, and foster the emergence of a truly just and harmonious world order founded upon respect for the equal rights and dignity of every human being.”