"Christians and Muslims Live Alongside One Another"

​​"I feel at home here," says Fredericke Weltzien, a mother of four who has been a priest in the German Protestant parish in Beirut for four years now. "Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I spent my early childhood here." Weltzien was four years of age when she came to Beirut for the first time.

Her father took the entire family with him when he took up a Chair at the American University (AUB) there. She also spent several years in the city as a teenager. That was shortly before the outbreak of the civil war. In 1999, the parish found itself without a priest and, together with her husband Uwe, who is also a Protestant priest, she applied for the job. The couple now look after the spiritual welfare of over 100 parishioners.

She likes "the religious atmosphere" in the country, which has eighteen religious communities, and says that people there have a genuine interest in religion. "I am often asked on the street or in a shop what I think about God even though people don’t even know that I am a priest," she says.

Living religious dialogue

The German parish has existed for 150 years and is located in West Beirut, the part of the Lebanese capital that is mostly inhabited by Muslims. "But Christians and Muslims live alongside one another here. Muslims come to our celebrations and we are often invited to the break-fast meal during Ramadan. It is a real living religious dialogue despite all the ideological differences."

As a Protestant priest, Weltzien is in a key religious position and is in contact with Greek Orthodox patriarchs and Muslim sheikhs. At an official level too, she works hard to promote interreligious dialogue. "Naturally, many people are initially surprised that a woman can become a priest," she says. Even the Lebanese Protestant community had not previously permitted any women to take up church service. "But with my very presence I am calling this practice into question again and again," she explains.

Mutual assistance in difficult situations

The contact to other religious denominations and their representatives is not just the result of an interest in dialogue. "In many problematic social issues we need the practical assistance of others," she explains. It is very often the case that Lebanese youngsters who grew up in Germany and are now living in Lebanon are struggling to cope with the difficulties of adapting to their new life. Girls in particular find it very difficult to find their way around what is for them a new society.

Weltzien faced a particularly difficult case this summer. A young Lebanese girl, who had grown up in Germany, was afraid that her father would kill her. He had read her diary and doubted that she was still a virgin. Weltzien tried to protect the girl and to negotiate with the family with the help of an Islamic sheikh. Unfortunately, nothing helped. The girl eventually returned to her family and her father subsequently murdered both her and her mother.

Focussing attention on honour killings

"Our church social projects must deal with this problem more," says Weltzien. This is why the Protestant parish is trying to help not only in individual cases but also by using funding from Germany to support Lebanese women's organisations. Weltzien is also planning an "Open Evening" this autumn during which Lebanese representatives of the Christian and Muslim religious communities will express their thoughts on the issue of honour killings.

"Naturally there are times when I find myself in the depths of despair," admits the priest. In addition to these stories of human suffering and the gulf that separates rich and poor, she is also touched by the Lebanese people's careless treatment of the environment. "Mountains are levelled for money; old houses torn down. Whoever has money, has power."

Nevertheless, she doesn't consider the situation completely hopeless. "Apart from the case of hardship I mentioned, we often succeed in helping people," she says. And the entire parish plays its part. Take the example of the young Lebanese janitor who grew up in Germany. "Young German-Lebanese people often come to him when they need help."

Therapist and pastor in one

So, is the parish the starting point for playing an active role in Lebanese society? "Yes, I think so," says Weltzien. Lebanese, Germans and foreigners all come together here to an arts and crafts group that doesn't exist anywhere else. They also come to sing and debate. Or for dancing therapy, a course that Weltzien has been running for several months now. "As a matter of fact, I could work as a full-time therapist here," she says.

For many people - both the German Lebanese community and lonely, old German women who live in poverty here - the German parish is the only place they have to go. For Weltzien it is important to be able to get involved at all levels, whether it be in a creative capacity for the preparation of the Christmas bazaar or in a pastoral capacity as a priest in the Church and the social service.

The Protestant parish is undoubtedly important for both the Germans and the Lebanese. However, the financial support from the established Protestant Church in Germany has steadily decreased over the past few years. Even before the Weltziens took up their post, the parish council in Beirut had decided to build private flats by extending the parish hall and to rent them for a profit.

The aim was to use the income from rent to help the parish fund itself in the future. Uwe Weltzien was heavily involved in the construction phase of the project and was responsible for leasing the flats. "It all went very fast: we now have 20 people on the waiting list," adds Fredericke Weltzien. But before the profits can be channelled back into the parish, the loans have to be repaid.

"Until then, we will continue to fight for more financial donations," she adds. Yet another task that falls to a priest abroad. But whenever it all gets too much, she goes to the Corniche, looks out to sea or up at the mountains to find the Lebanon she knows and loves so well: a country that is simply beautiful.

Christina Förch

© Qantara.de 2003

Translated from the German by Aingeal Flanagan