The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams has returned from a visit to Armenia, Syria and Lebanon.
His gruelling schedule of visits, meetings and services included time with senior politicians, Church leaders, senior Muslim clerics, refugees and communities and community projects ranging from prison inmates and chaplains in Armenia.
He also met people with learning disabilities living in a L'Arche community in Damascus, and first, second and third generation refugees living in one of the Palestinian camps outside Beirut.
In an 80-minute meeting, the Archbishop heard first hand from the President of Syria, His Excellency Dr Bashar al Asad, how Syria was dealing with major instability in the region.
Their discussions covered the prospects for moves towards peace in the region, the importance of the freedom of expression of religion in society and models of religious pluralism, and the growing problem of refugees fleeing from the violence in Iraq.
Meanwhile, in a "harrowing" meeting with around 300 Iraqi Christian refugees at the Syrian Orthodox monastery at Ma'aret Sednaya the Archbishop heard first hand the plight of some of the one and a half million refugees who have fled Iraq for Syria since 2003.
He told the refugees, "The events of the last few years have done terrible damage in the whole of this region and many people, I know, do not see the cost in human terms of the war which was unleashed," he said.
"So for me to be here is to gain an opportunity when I return to say something about what you have endured. I do so in the hope and in the daily prayer that we may yet find a solution that will be just and good for all of you."
