The World Student Christian Federation – Middle East Region

The World Student Christian Federation – Middle East Region (WSCF-ME) is an Ecumenical platform that engulfs members of seven different countries. Keeping this broad definition in mind, the Regional Secretary of the Federation, as well as other participants, has countless errands to run. The primary mission to accomplish is ensuring the continuity of the Federation in the region as well as the doctrines that it raises. Utterly difficult in the current era, this mission is slowly and carefully followed, without recklessness or frustration. The WSCF-ME works on fulfilling this task by gathering youths, from the different countries, and exposes them to several fields: Ecumenism, Capacity Building Training, Analysis, Biblical and Community Work, and most notably, Faith. Through this exposure, the regional Federation ensures that its primary mission is achieved because the simple act of gathering ultimately fulfills the stated requirement.

Secondary missions include the proliferation of Ecumenism in the Middle East and educating the youths. Those missions tend to overlap: Ecumenism flourishes in an educative soil. WSCF-ME realizes this overlapping but also sees the differences and has thus built a plan to cover all of these fields. The WSCF-ME has made it its special mission to target young Christian students:

• To call them to faith in God according to the Scriptures.
• To help them grow in the Christian faith & life through prayer, Bible studies, and participation in the worship and witness of the Church.
• To help them witness to Jesus Christ in the academic community.
• To bring them into fellowship with one another in mutual service and support efforts to serve all students in their needs.
• To help them strive for peace and justice in and among nations.
• To help them work for the manifestation of the Unity of the Church.
• To help them to be servants and messengers of God’s kingdom in the whole world.

History
Following the establishment of the World Student Christian Federation in 1899, WSCF-ME was born in 1962. The Federation has a consultative status in the UN category B and is a non-profit organization. The Lebanese government via presidential decree No.11717 legally recognizes the organization that strives for peace and justice through intellectual dialogue among university students. The Federation was first established to provide a place of meeting and dialogue for young Christians of different churches and denominations, a place where young students are able to gather, and a space for dialogue, sharing and growing together, spiritually, emotionally and intellectually. The organization slowly climbed the ladder by recruiting several Christian Youth Movements that it compassionately embraced under its roof. Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant students as well as senior friends are all a part of the WSCF Middle East family. Currently 20 local movements from Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq and Sudan, are affiliated members of the WSCF Middle East Region.

The WSCF Middle East Regional Office in Beirut includes a full-time Regional Secretary, a part-time office assistant based in Egypt. This office, in cooperation with the national movements, is active in helping facilitate and organize a variety of local, national, regional and inter-regional projects as well as publishing various resource materials. Specific programs include the WSCF-ME Summer University Program, the annual Leadership Training Conferences, The Interfaith Program, The Women’s Project and the Regional Committee Meeting. WSCF-ME is also involved in various short-term projects, which involve particular themes or collaboration with partner organizations.