Books of Interest

“We Choose Abundant Life”

Christians in the Middle East: Towards Renewed Theological, Social, and Political Choices

“How can we be a better church?” is the question that motivated 11 Arab Christian theologians to meet together for one year and create the prophetic document entitled “We Choose Abundant Life.”  Ironically, it was the Covid-19 pandemic that gave them the freedom and the technology to meet every Tuesday on Zoom for 12 months in 2020 and 2021.  The authors live in Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Switzerland, and Germany.  Zoom bridged the geographical gap that separated them.  God's Holy Spirit bridged the gap between their deeply-rooted Middle Eastern Christian traditions that divide them into Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant believers.

“We Choose Abundant Life” is the fruit of this unique  collaboration between eleven Arab Christians who are Greek Orthodox, Maronite, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Lutheran, and Episcopalian, male and female, clergy and laity.  They are an ad hoc group that was not appointed by church authorities as official representatives of their respective churches.  They never met face to face until September 28, 2021, after the document was finished and translated from the original Arabic into English, French, Italian, and German.

During 2022, the SLPN Steering Committee studied and discussed “We Choose Abundant Life” and found it to be a valuable resource for understanding the realities and challenges facing the church in the Middle East in the 21st century. The document also holds up a mirror in which American Presbyterians can see ourselves challenged by many of the same issues. “How can we be a better church?” Participants in SLPN’s 2022 Annual Gathering also discussed this document, guided by presentations from and discussions with four of the authors.

Download “We Choose Abundant Life” and a worksheet developed by the SLPN Education Team to guide your study of this document. The worksheet is on the last three pages.