As usual, the Romaïan Cultural Society celebrated its founding anniversary in 2014, and held a grand banquet at the La Marina Club in Dbaiyé, attended by no less than one hundred and fifty members and friends of the association. The event was sponsored by the former Beirut Governor, H.E. Engineer Nicolas Saba, and included a delegation from the Orthodox Liqa’a led by former MP and Secretary-General H.E. Mr. Marwan Abou-Fadel, along with some of its prominent members, including Secretary Mr. Samir Naimeh. The Lebanese Greek Orthodox League also participated, led by Dr. Bechara Gholam and some members of its new administrative committee.

The celebration began with the Lebanese national anthem and the Anthem of Constantinople, which dates back to the sixth century and was sung by the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Constantinopolitan people when the Persian attack receded. Since then, it has become the anthem of the Romaïans throughout the Ecumene. Afterwards, the president of the society, Professor Negib Geahchan, delivered a welcoming speech that included the society’s experiences since its founding, which encompassed cultural seminars, television programs, scientific conferences, cultural entertainment trips, and the publishing of the book “My Sun shall not fade”. However, the association discovered, as he noted, that the majority of the Romaïan people in Lebanon behave chronically as absent minded, indifferent, disregarding and lacking the sense of belonging. Dr. Geahchan stated that the reasons for this tragic situation are probably multiple, but the clergy and the notables of the community have, for centuries, ignored this situation, closing their eyes, and deafening their ears.
The president of the RCS then moved on to enumerate some facts and data that express withdrawal, indifference, ignorance, alienation, schizophrenia and frustration of the Romaïan community, including the demographic change in Christian cities and towns, the massive emigration to the diaspora, the decline in fertility and the spread of spinsterhood, the laziness of the Romaïans to send their children to the schools of the community, the decline in their religious practice, the absence of the spirit of the Romaïan Symphonia, the exhaustion caused by religious schisms for seventeen centuries, the election of political representatives of the Romaïans under the auspices of other national components, and the decline in the presence, role and influence of the Romaïans in the Lebanese state and other countries of the Levant. Finally, he called on the clergy, the Orthodox Liqa’a, the Lebanese Greek Orthodox League present in this meeting, and every other Romaïan Orthodox or Catholic league or association, to join forces “to address this reality with boldness, courage, and haste before the train quits and opportunities disappear, leaving nothing but stones without people.”

Then, former Beirut Governor, Eng. Nicolas Saba, spoke, thanking the Romaïan Cultural Society, and wishing it to continue its cultural efforts and its positive endeavor in revealing the treasures of the Romaïan culture and the importance of group belonging. He praised the association’s many achievements, most notably the cultural seminars and lectures and the “Enlightening Heritage” program on Télé Lumière Noursat TV. He recalled the role of the Romaïan civilization in the Levant and among all its religious and ethnic components. In response to the association’s presidential request to address the tragic situation of the Romaïans in Lebanon and the Levant, Governor Saba proposed establishing a “Research Center for Romaïan Renaissance”, including the following axes:
• Describing the demography, and treating the numerical and societal decline
• Studying the phenomenon of emigration and expatriation of the Romaïans
• Analyzing the role of the Romaïan community in the Lebanese and Levantine entities
• Enhancing the involvement of the Romaïans in social, economic, cultural and professional lives in Lebanon
• Supporting the role of the institutions of the Romaïan Church in serving the Romaïan people
• Studying and enhancing awareness and belonging to the Romaïan culture
• Identifying the risks and challenges facing the Romaïans, analyzing them and finding ways of treatment and overcome
• Studying the relationship of the Lebanese Romaïans with the Romaïan world and seeking to enhance it In his speech, Governor Saba welcomed the election of President Joseph Aoun, and hoped that Lebanon’s future would be built on the rights and duties of all his components, including the genuine Romaïan component that has always rejected sectarianism, and still is the first Christian component in the Levant and the second component in Lebanon, after the Maronites. As for Syria, what is required is, first a just and secure state and, secondly a new constitution that respects and protects all components of the Syrian people, including the Romaïan component. He supported the speeches of His Beatitude Patriarch John X and his recent sermons that stem jointly from the Syrian and Christian conscience.