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Consolidating the bond
WHO WE ARE / WHY:
Strengthening the ties
Consolidating the bond
Maintaining a Vital Balance
Regaining the Lebanese Citizenship
Joining Forces to overcome demography
 
The dioceses worldwide remain as much Maronite in as much as they are able to preserve the Maronite identity in its spiritual legacy, religious and secular values, liturgical rites, and Lebanese national customs. This is basically manifested through consolidating affiliation with the  Patriarchal See in Lebanon, which in turn represents the unifying factor of the Maronite church, and is itself an epitome of the Syriac Antioch Levantine Maronite heritage.
However, the natural course of social integration in the countries of emigration indicates, on a parallel yet negative course, a regression in the national Lebanese, and equally Maronite affiliation, in the face of temptations and the consequent fact that a large number of emigrants and their descendants join local Latin churches. This is due, in a large extent, to the obstacles that the mother church faced, or rather to the unavailability of means which would have made it possible for the church to accompany its children spread worldwide within the required dimensions and scope, offering them the spiritual, the pastoral, national, and cultural services given the readiness and proclaimed intent in the wide milieus of our Maronite communities abroad to found a parish or a diocese : “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” (Mathew 9:37).
However, accomplishing such responsibilities definitely demands the availability of material resources needed by the church to fulfill its apostolic, spiritual, and national roles to achieve intercommunication with the Lebanese generations, the Maronites in particular, and to enlighten them to their Lebanese and Maronite roots and values, as well as to the deep-rooted and civilized spiritual and secular heritage of their forefathers.
These major challenges that Lebanon in general and the Maronite church in particular now face have made the Maronite Synod that met in June 2003 and concluded its functions on June 10, 2006 allot the issue of the Lebanese and Maronite widespread in the world exceptional central concern. The seminars, deliberations, as well as the concluding recommendations versus this issue aim at consolidating the intercommunicative bonds between the mother church and its children in the world on one hand, and between the homeland and the Lebanese worldwide on the other.
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