Abstract: The aim of this article is to analyze the role of the Greek-Melkite Community in mobilizing identity dynamics among Lebanese Christians. The results of this study are based on fieldwork conducted in Lebanon between 2014 and 2018 through participant observation in churches and monasteries. Through its vespers, masses and prayer services, the clergy of this confession put into practice the prescriptions of its ritual tradition, built from the combination of elements from opposite references of Christianity mainly the Byzantine and the Latin. This factor in addition to the quality of these performances in disciplinary, aesthetic and / or emotional terms, help to attract both melkites and other Christians to these churches and monasteries. Therefore, it is possible to recognize the presence of several identity references such as the Melkite, Catholic, Byzantine or the generic Christian identity within the participants’discourses.
Keywords:
Greek-Melkite Community; Lebanon; ritual; identity dynamics