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This paper explores the educational practices of the Syriac Antiochene Maronite Catholic Church in the United States towards Maronite children and adults. The paper proposes, to a large extent, that the current educational forms have led to an uncritical obedience to the ecclesial tradition. These forms are: Qurbono (liturgy), catechetical texts, storytelling, and communal modeling. Part one of the paper contextualizes the conversation and describes the four educational forms practiced within the tradition. Part two argues for a refashioning of the educational forms so that they are consistent with a more dialogical and multi-linguistic approach. This is achieved through the practice of being prophetically obedient and placing the current educational practices of the group in direct conversation with prophetic literature. It offers a renewed vision of pedagogy and curriculum for Maronite Religious Education in the United States. The aim is to accompany and guide the Maronite people towards a Prophetic Obedience to this ancient tradition in a revitalized form.

The study investigates the inclusion of women deacons in the canons of the National Synod of Mount Lebanon of 1736, which formalized Latinization of the Maronite Church, providing for codification of its particular law. The canons were approved in forma specifica by Pope Clement XII and have never been modified or overruled, thereby giving evidence of the liceity of ordaining women deacons in the Catholic Church.

The post-war period in Lebanon brought to the open all sensitive subjects that have marked the history of Lebanon: how to avoid falling into such a crisis? How not repeating such war? How can the Lebanese society eradicate the reasons that may lead to any other war? The Lebanese crisis had challenged the Church inviting her to move from being a passive witness to an active participant in the peaceful struggle for the liberation of the Lebanese society and help the country to complete its incorrect reading of history. Can the Maronite Patriarchate have a positive role in this regard? Can the Maronite Patriarchate bring about the purifi cation of the memory in a multiconfessional country? In this paper, and after defi ning the meaning of the purifi cation of memory in the Lebanese context, we will consider the important challenges that must precede any serious and defi nitive solution to the crisis in Lebanon and how can the Lebanese Church contribute in the development of a national identity and in the building of a new state free from any kind of domination. The purpose of this paper is not to justify what has happened in the past 34 years, i.e. since the beginning of the Lebanese war, but to contribute in searching for a sustainable peace.

This article examines the changing relationship between religion, secularism, national politics, and identity formation among Lebanese Christians in Senegal. Notre Dame du Liban, the first Lebanese religious institution in West Africa, draws on its Lebanese "national" character to accommodate Lebanese Maronite Catholic and Greek Orthodox Christians in Dakar, remaining an icon of "Lebanese" religion, yet departing from religious sectarianism in Lebanon. As such, transnational religion can vary from national religion, gaining new resonances and reinforcing a wider "secular" ethnonational identity. [Keywords: Transnational migration, ethnicity, Maronite Church, Senegal, Lebanon, religion, politics]Foreign language translations:From the Cross (and Crescent) to the Cedar and Back Again: Transnational Religion and Politics Among Lebanese Christians in Senegal[Keywords: Transnational migration, ethnicity, Maronite Church, Senegal, Lebanon, religion, politics]Abandonner la Croix (et du Croissant) au profit du Cedre pour les retrouver: Religion et Politique transnationale des Libanais chretiens au Senegal[Mots cles: Migration transnationale, Ethnicite, l'Eglise maronite, Senegal, Liban, Religion, Politique]......Da Cruz (e do Quarto Crescente) ao Cedro, e Novamente de Regresso: Religiao e Politicas Transnacionais entre Christaos Libanenses no Senegal[Palavras chaves: Migracao transnacional, afiliacao etnica, a Igreja Maronita, Senegal, Libano, religiao, politica]...(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)In the past few decades, social scientists have examined the interplay of politics and religion in the world, perhaps most famously through the now discredited secularization thesis. More recently, anthropologists (along with other social theorists) have begun to study the interconnection among secularism, religion, and nationalism, discounting yet another thesis- the decline of the nation-state. In this article, I seek to show how various forms of religious, secular, ethnic, and nationalist modes of identification and belonging overlap, and, at times, compete with one another, transforming some functions of the Lebanese Maronite Church in the diaspora in West Africa. Like Vora (2008), I understand diasporas as bounded groups which cannot be abstracted out of their particular contexts.I follow Goldstone's (2007) approach, which moves beyond secularism's more common understanding of demarcating religious from non-religious institutions. He underscores secularism's "disciplining of religion in such a way that now renders it compatible with the norms and precepts of liberal, democratic governance" (2007:210). Drawing on Asad (2003), Goldstone argues thata person's habits and sensibilities must be disciplined just to the extent that one's sense of political belonging-and the invention of a distinction between "political" and "religious" belonging is crucial here-no longer derives primarily from one's religious community... but is instead found in the nation-state and its values.1 (2007:208)If we take the Maronite Catholic Church in Senegal as a proxy for the Lebanese homeland, I maintain, following Goldstone, that Lebanese secularism continues to mediate the interactions between religion and politics-and also between religion and ethnicity-while subject to the circumstances of being a minority community in Senegal (another postcolonial liberal democracy). Yet Lebanese diasporic secularism goes beyond Goldstone's model, where the political aims to supersede the religious in efforts to reify Dakar's Maronite Church as a Lebanese national church inclusive of all religious denominations.Members of ethnic groups are often categorized by belonging to a particular religious community, speaking the same language, and following certain social practices. Lebanese, in contrast, are characterized by religious pluralism. …

The Maronite Church is a branch of the Syro-Antiochean Church and one of the oldest among the Eastern churches. Modernisation, globalisation, emigration, civil war and other factors have together influenced many aspects of local religious expression, but the Maronite Church has succeeded in adapting to the social changes and the spiritual needs of its followers without losing its identity. This is reflected in the Maronite funeral liturgy, which is here examined. I aim to show how the role of music and poetry is perpetuating a sense of communal identity among the members of this religious group, and is creating boundaries with other ethnic and religious groups.