Volume 1 No.4 October 1997

Dear Reader,

This issue marks the Journal's one-year anniversary. To have survived our one year infancy is quite an achievement. We could not have done it, except for our determination to carve out a permanent niche for our Maronite history in the world of vital information. We were also able to attain our first year objectives with the participation of committed supporters.

Some have assisted by sharing personal accounts of their family's migration and settlement in the United States of America; some by documenting their observations and experiences during visits to Lebanon; and others by writing articles pertaining to the Maronite temporal and religious heritage. Yet others have generously contributed funds or made donations in kind, and many have volunteered their skills and talents.

MARI's plans are much more ambitious than its first year achievements which included the support of the Maronite hierarchy both in Lebanon and the United States; the inclusion of the Journal of Maronite Studies in the catalogue and collection of the Library Of Congress; the open houses in Lebanon and in South Africa; the opening of an office in Lebanon; and MARI's participation in several Maronite conventions and meetings around the world.

Naturally, we are striving to bring greater awareness of the Maronite experience, whether in the benevolent environment of the United States and the West or in the less tolerant homelands of the Middle East. We are exerting all our efforts to continue collaborating with other Maronite organizations such as the Commission on Lebanon of the Eparchies of Saint Maron, New York and Our Lady of Lebanon, Los Angeles; the Holy Spirit University, Kaslik, Lebanon; the National Apostolate of Maronites, New York; Saint Sharbel Icon Foundation, Vermont; Our Lady of the Cedars, Johannesburg, South Africa; Opus Libani, Zouk, Lebanon and many dedicated Maronites and other Christians in the United States, Australia, Canada, Lebanon, Belgium, France, Italy, Argentina, South Africa, and Mexico.

We consider the founding of MARI and the publishing of the Journal of Maronite Studies to be only the prelude to a greater involvement by the Maronites in an envisioned spiritual and literary renaissance in the Third Millennium. We hope that this involvement will be comparable to the contribution of the Maronite College of Rome to Christian thought and scholarship in Europe in the 16^th, 17^th, and 18^th centuries, and equal to the Maronite leadership of the intellectual renaissance in the Arab World in the 19^th and 20^th centuries.

Guita G. Hourani
Editor
Edward J. Brice,
Deputy Chief Editor