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DECEMBER 2011

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1 4 5 lights, camera,

1 4 5 lights, camera, evangelize ECRC celebrates 10 years as they spotlight the next decade By Vanessa Denha Garmo In Pope John Paul II’s encyclicals, speeches and other writings he used the term “new evangelization.” The Pope’s call to a new evangelization is a prophetic and revolutionary calling to the Roman Catholic Church. Thousands of miles from the Vatican — in West Bloomfield, Michigan — a trio of Chaldeans heard the call. Neran Karmo and Karam Bahnam approached Fr. Frank Kalabat of St. Thomas Chaldean Catholic Church separately with the desire to do more in the church. That was 10 years ago. Today, ECRC is flourishing with more than 500 people a week attending various programs offered. In celebration of the last decade, more than 600 people attended dinner at Shenandoah Country Club on November 18. The evening’s program, hosted by Bashar Kirma, was kicked off by the song “We Evangelize” dedicated to the ECRC and performed by Omar Binno’s 80s Resurrection Band featuring vocalists Jenelle Faranso and Yassir Yasso. There was also a special presentation by Seminarian Andrew Seba and a 30-minute performance from the Magic Carpet Theater called the Parable Project. The evening was to commemorate the laity learning and preaching the faith. The first program ECRC developed was a Bible study class. Neran Karmo reached out to Kelly Bowring, a doctorate candidate at the time and the dean of the Theology Department at Ave Maria University Orchard Lake Campus to help establish the program. Once they moved beyond the one class, ECRC took off and eventually out of St. Thomas into their own center. In 2006, they purchased the St. Ephrem Center on Inkster and Maple. This lay organization operates primarily by volunteers. Since its inception, the center has operated under the guidance of the Chaldean Catholic Diocese offering programs for kids, youths and adults. These include retreats, educational programs, pilgrimages and prayer groups. All of this has been made possible through financial grants from the Chaldean Diocese and from personal support from His Excellency Bishop Ibrahim Ibrahim. ECRC offers about 25 programs including their annual conference called Awake My Soul. Every year ECRC hosts this program at a different church with plans for the 2012 conference to be held at St. George. “We always have people tell us how surprised they are because they did not know something like this existed,” said Neran Karmo. “They continue to come back and eventually many of them become ECRC leaders.” “This is something Pope John Paul II called us to do,” said Fr. Frank. “Pope John’s call to evangelize is why ECRC was established to work hand-in-hand with the church in spreading the Gospel message, and to do this effectively we need to utilize technology.” At the event, it was announced that the next phase of ECRC is the creation of Mar Toma Chaldean Productions. Despite the confusion, ECRC is not starting a TV station. They are producing content for existing stations that focus on Chaldean Catholics. Networks 52 CHALDEAN NEWS DECEMBER 2011

2 3 6 7 1. Full house 2. Mar Ibrahim Ibrahim 3. Wiaam and Anthony Samona 4. Frs. Frank Kalabat, Pierre Konja, Ayad Khanjaro, Manuel Boji 5. Bashar Kirma 6. Jenelle Faranso 7. Seminarian Andrew Seba such as the Noursat, considered the largest Arabic-speaking Catholic network with a presence in five continents, showed an interest to broadcast programs produced by Chaldeans. EWTN, which broadcasts to 190 million homes, is also interested and inquired about programs focused on Eastern Catholic spirituality and traditions and about Chaldean martyrs. “We are actually behind many communities who already use the media to preach,” said Karam Bahnam. “Egyptians, Lebanese and Jordanians are doing this every day. Chaldeans are not on the map when it comes to evangelizing using the media. We have no presence at all and if there is anyone who can change this fact, it would be us. The Chaldean community in Detroit is considered the largest and the most stable economically. If we don’t do it no one will or can.” The main room inside the St. Ephrem center, the home of ECRC, will be converted into a state-of-theart studio equipped with cameras, a sound system and editing room. This will enable a production team to create various programs including a game show now in its creation stages to be aired on EWTN and Noursat. Over the next few months, ECRC will actively raise the funds needed to build the studio and for the yearly operating costs. Speaking at the dinner celebration, Bishop Ibrahim bestowed his blessings on the project and encouraged the community to support Mar Toma Chaldean Productions and construction of the studio. “This is a good project and we need you to help them in anyway you are able,” said the Bishop. Untitled-5 1 DECEMBER 2011 CHALDEAN NEWS 53 10/12/11 5:06 PM

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