Over 500 people who came from different cities in the United States and Canada, led by The Most Reverend Metropolitan Joseph Primate of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of North America, gathered in a historical reunion in Charleston West Virginia organized by the Aita Foundation, where Guest Speaker Professor Ghassan Skaf, Professor and Chief of Neurological Surgery at the American University of Beirut, announced the decision made by His Beatitude Patriarch John X to start the process of establishing the «World Orthodox Antiochian Foundation», which emphasizes the value His Beatitude places on our Diaspora.
Professor Skaf expressed his deep gratitude to the United States of America for giving him the opportunity To become a professional Neurosurgeon. He emphasized that like branches in a tree, our lives may grow in different directions, yet our roots run deep and remain one. Professor Skaf added that it was once said that «East is East and West is West, and the Twain shall never meet», but integrating the developed experience and talents in the administrative and missionary work of North American Archdiocese with that of deep monastic saintly spiritual heritage of the East can produce wonders.
Professor Skaf concluded that this reunion will mark a very important step in the development of the Lebanese Diaspora initiative, in a Foundation that will mary our hopes, objectives and aspirations.
