Key lessons on staff morale from 1 million Microsoft Teams meetings — EASTWEST Public Relations

destruction of the Mar Elian monastery in Syria by the ISIS forces. It was a pilgrimage site that sheltered hundreds of Syrian Christians who had survived and huddled in this sanctuary in spite of the onslaught of the the ISIS forces. The ISIS forces arrived, and they captured a French priest, while his community stayed around the building. Eventually, the French reverend escaped, his following came in, and they decided they must all leave this part of Syria near Palmyra. They did so, because the monastery have been destroyed. To them, it was more than just a place. It had been a symbol of hope. It had been where they held their rituals, where they would come to pray, where they would have a certain social order, where they would have their culture of what they would wear and what they would read, and where they had their symbols of their faith, their crosses, scepters, and crypts. These are all elements that, as human beings, bind people together. They’re the essential elements of any culture that people need, these rituals, these symbols, these myths, and stories that validate why all of these things exist, why they matter, and what they represent. For 1,600 years, people have been going as pilgrims to this site, and in just a short period of time, a group of people had managed to destroy it, not just the building, but the hope and the faith that these Christians had. From this story of a fourth century saint who had founded the Mar Elian monastery in Syria had bound people together, it was clear that he had really given his people a sense of purpose and a sense of energy to withstand amazing pressures and physical harm.

Originally published at https://www.eastwestpr.com.