BEIRUT, Lebanon, July 26 — Following four years of complex legal negotiations, the Bible Society in Lebanon (BSL) has regained the right to operate a bookshop on its original premises, which it was forced to flee some 25 years ago during the civil war.
Located in one of the most attractive buildings on Maarad Street in the heart of Beirut, the bookshop will give the Bible Society a very visible presence in the city.
"When peo
ple see us back in our old downtown location they will recall that the Bible Society lived through the war years and remained faithful to the Bible cause in this country," said the Rev Lucien Accad, BSL General Secretary.
The building also overlooks the Parliament Building, which is visited by thousands of tourists each year, and will provide an ideal distribution point for the Bible Society's products.
The premises in Maarad Street served as the seat of Bible work in Lebanon for 40 years. A suite of offices and a bookshop were first rented there in 1935 by the American Bible Society, then responsible for work in the country, and were kept on by the BSL, which was formed in 1966.
When civil war broke out in 1975 the building was destroyed and had to be rebuilt. By 1978, however, the centre of Beirut had become a war zone.
"The centre of Beirut turned into a ghost-town with bullet-ridden walls," explained Mike Bassous, BSL Executive Manager and Deputy General Secretary. "The Society moved to another rented location in west Beirut until 1982, when those premises were also bombed."
Since then, the BSL has moved twice -- in 1983 it purchased a property, which it sold several years later to build a new Bible House and warehouse, opened last year. While this new property is an excellent base from which to co-ordinate Bible work throughout the region, it is not centrally located in the city of Beirut.
The decision to re-open a bookshop on the Maarad Street premises was taken in 1990 at the end of the war, when the BSL board felt that the Bible Society needed a presence in downtown Beirut. After years of legal negotiations, court proceedings against the landlord began in 1997, finally ending in an out-of-court settlement this year.
The Bible Society has signed a 30-year lease for a bookshop and, as part of the settlement, will pay no rent for the first five years and only 40 per cent for the remaining 25. „We thank God for this favourable outcome," said Mr Bassous. "However, the bookshop requires basic renovations before we can open it to the public, which we have not budgeted for. Please pray that the money becomes available.
United Bible Societies
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