PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr.Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Officer
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:
PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon
Armenian version:
THE ARMENIAN CHURCH PARTICIPATES IN THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING OF MECC
ANTELIAS, Lebanon – The executive committee of the Middle East Council of
Churches (MECC) held its regular session on March 1-2 in the Mar Markos
Center of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Cairo. The Armenian Church is a
founding member of MECC through the Catholicosate of Cilicia and has
actively participated in the council’s activities since its establishment.
In this 4-year term of the MECC executive committee the Catholicosate of
Cilicia is represented by Archbishop Sebouh Sarkissian, Primate of the
Diocese of Tehran, and Bishop Kegham Khatcherian, Primate of the Diocese of
Lebanon.
The executive committee was chaired by representatives from the four church
families participating in the council. Patriarch Shnouda III of the Coptic
Orthodox Church chaired the committee on behalf of the Eastern Orthodox
Churches.
In its capacity as a body that oversees and steers the projects and
activities of MECC, the executive committee listened to the six-monthly
report of General Secretary Dr. Georges Saleh, the report of the financial
committee, as well as reports from the council’s various departments – Life
and Service, Faith and Unity, Youth and Education, Women’s Committee and the
Committee on Church Cooperation for the Agricultural Development of Lebanese
Regions. The executive committee members then made remarks and suggestions
concerning the reports.
The executive committee discussed, with special attention, an agenda item
regarding the reevaluation of the committee’s future activities and mode of
functioning.
Considering that the 4-year mandate of the executive committee had come to
an end, its members decided to hold the general assembly in November of this
year.
The committee published a press release as the end of its session, with a
special section on the situation in Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq, calling on
the leaders of these countries to establish peace and protect the rights of
citizens to peaceful coexistence.
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The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the Ecumenical
activities of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician Catholicosate, the
administrative center of the church is located in Antelias, Lebanon.