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Letter from Met. PHILIP on Balamand Scholarship Fund

September 17th, 2008

To all Pastors and Faithful of the Self-Ruled Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America:

Greetings and Blessings in the Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ!

As you all know, we will be blessed this Fall with a visit from our Father in Christ His Beatitude, IGNATIUS IV, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East. His Beatitude will be with us in Boston, Massachusetts during the weekend of Friday, October 31st through Sunday, November 2nd in conjunction with the Fall meeting of the Archidiocese Board of Trustees. His Beatitude will preside over a very special banquet to be held on Saturday, November 1st, which will mark the 20th anniversary of the founding of The University of Balamand and the establishment of a new scholarship fund which will assist needy and worthy students at the university. This scholarship is being established by The Balamand Educational Foundation and they have chosen to name the scholarship "The Metropolitan PHILIP Educational Scholarship Fund" to benefit needy and worthy students.

The University of Balamand, which was founded by His Beatitude, Patriarch IGNATIUS IV, in 1998, has always held a special place in his heart. In addition, this Archdiocese has given strong support to this unique institution since its inception. There would be no better way to honor His Beatitude on this visit than for our parishes and missions to make a voluntary donation to this new scholarship fund.

We are suggesting that your donation be given according to the size of your community as follows: $1,500 for large parishes, $1,000 for medium parishes, $500 for small parishes, and any amount from missions. You may send your contribution to the Archdiocese office by October 15th, 2008. Please make the check payable to "The Antiochian Archdiocese" and earmark it "Balamand Scholarship Fund." Praying that we will se many of you at this special event in Boston, we remain,

You Father in Christ,

Met. PHILLIP Signature