Patriarchal visit to Birmingham

The head of the Maronite Church and Patriarch of Antioch and All of the East, His Beatitude Cardinal Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi, will make his first-ever pastoral visit to the United Kingdom from Saturday 7 to Saturday 14 January 2023.

At a time of unprecedented political and economic turmoil in Lebanon, Cardinal al-Rahi, as head of the largest Christian denomination in the country, has also become the nation’s leading voice, speaking up especially for the 80 per cent of the population that has been pushed into poverty, as well as expressing his concerns for the survival of Christianity in the Middle East.

The issues and the concerns of members of the Maronite Church, both in Lebanon and around the world, will be among the topics Cardinal al-Rahi will address during his talks with Cardinal Vincent Nichols (Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster), the Rt Revd Justin Welby (Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury), Cardinal Michael Fitzgerald (Patron of Fellowship and Aid to the Christians of the East), the Most Revd Bernard Longley (Roman Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham), the Maronite parish in London, Church leaders in the Midlands, British Government ministers and parliamentarians, plus representatives of the British and foreign diplomatic corps.

The Maronite Church, whose origins date back to the early 4th Century, is in full communion with the Bishop of Rome as a Church in its own right. There are approximately 4 million Maronites in the world, of whom roughly a quarter live in Lebanon, where they constitute up to 30% of the population, while three-quarters live outside the Middle East, mostly in Canada, Australia, USA, UK, France, Argentina and Brazil.

As head of the largest religious group in Lebanon, His Beatitude Cardinal Al-Rahi is both a shepherd to his people and a prophetic moral voice to the nation, within the context of the distinct political system of confessionalism which has been balancing power between Christians, Muslims and Druzes since the setting up of the Republic of Lebanon in 1943. The Patriarch faces the challenging task of guiding and comforting his nation at a time of unprecedented political turmoil in Lebanon, when paralysis of government and economic crisis have pushed most of the population below the poverty line and undermined the fabric of society.

The Patriarch’s visit to the UK includes two engagements in Birmingham:

• At the invitation of Revd Ignatius Harrison (Provost of Birmingham Oratory), the Patriarch will preside over a Mass in the Maronite Rite concelebrated by the Archbishop of Birmingham and his diocesan clergy, at the Shrine of St John Henry Newman.
• At the invitation of the Most Revd Bernard Longley, the Patriarch will participate in an Ecumenical Vespers at St Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham, attended by Church leaders from all denominations in the Midlands.

More information about the Maronite Church can be found HERE.