I am most honored and privileged to have been chosen as member of the delegation by His Beatitude Patriarch Mar Bechara Boutros El Rai; an honor to join the Symbol of Bkirke, Head of the Maronite Church, on this visit.

It is at the same time my responsibility to become part of His Beatitude’s historical movement in exercising his mission through opening new horizons for Bkirke. In his capacity as Sheppard of his community and in good faith of partnership, he is undertaking to link the West to the East by rendering it a reality.

His Beatitude’s present visit to Russia accompanied by his Greek Orthodox brothers reflects a continuity of his numerous historical recent visits throughout Lebanon, Syria and the Americas. This is to prove that the role of Christians in the Levant and especially the Maronite community is an essential basis to the essence of coexistence in the Middle East, the crib to religious missions witnessing civilized integration.

His Beatitude Mar Bechara Boutros El Rai’s activities should be a moral inspiration to all the Lebanese leaders in an effort to create in each of them the awareness to assuming their historical responsibility towards the Lebanese Nation and to preserving its existence by propelling it further towards civilized achievements for the glory of Lebanon. After all, this should become their sacred mission.