Tuesday 5 February 2013. The Lebanese members of the Executive committee of the MECC, its General Secretary Bishop Paul Rouhana and the Executive staff held an extraordinary meeting presided over by His Holiness Aram I. During the meeting they discussed procedures for the election of a new General Secretary, studied the finances of the Council, planned humanitarian assistance to Syrian refugees, and started planning a second “International Conference on Christian presence in the Middle East.”

In his concluding remarks, Catholicos Aram I spoke of the important vocation of the Middle East Council of Churches during the current difficult times in the region and called upon the member churches to support the Council, which is the only organized expression of the Churches in the region.