Time:
3:00pm Central Europe & Central Africa (2:00pm UK & Western Africa, 4:00pm East Africa and Eastern Europe, 9:00am USA Eastern, 6:30pm India Time)
Meeting Theme:
In May, we will be joined by Ramy Taleb, founder of Al Shabiba Risala (ASR), a grassroots movement equipping young people across Lebanon to become peacebuilders in the midst of ongoing fragility and division. Ramy’s journey into peacebuilding began through a transformative experience of reconciliation work in Northern Ireland, which reshaped how he understood faith, conflict, and what it means to follow Jesus. Yet this shift was not without cost. As he began engaging peacebuilding and forgiveness in the Lebanese context, he often encountered confusion—and at times resistance—from fellow Christians and people of other faiths whose inherited frameworks did not easily make space for this kind of work.
Through ASR, Ramy and his team are nurturing a new generation of leaders by attending to the whole person—emotionally, socially, physically, and spiritually—and equipping them with tools for forgiveness, conflict transformation, and peace. From school-based curricula and psychosocial support to sports-based initiatives like “Play for Peace,” their work creates spaces where young people explore their own stories, learn to see the “other” differently, and build relationships across lines of difference. In the context of Lebanon’s ongoing instability and fragile ceasefire, we will listen to Ramy’s story, explore the tensions of faith and peacebuilding, and reflect on what it means to cultivate resilient, hope-filled communities amid uncertainty and violence.
Reflection questions:
As you prepare for our conversation, you might reflect on:
When following Jesus leads toward forgiveness and reconciliation, why does it sometimes create tension—or even resistance—within Christian communities?
What does peacebuilding actually cost in a context like Lebanon, where conflict is ongoing and trust is fragile?
How do we practice forgiveness without minimizing harm, ignoring injustice, or rushing people toward reconciliation?
What does it look like to form young people as peacemakers in the midst of instability, trauma, and uncertainty?
Where might our own faith frameworks need to be stretched, challenged, or even unlearned in order to take peacebuilding seriously?
Facilitators:
