The Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) was inaugurated in May 1974 at its First General Assembly in Nicosia, Cyprus, and now has its headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon.
Through the membership of its four Church families, the MECC works in over 14 countries from Northern Africa, the Levant, Iraq, Iran and the Persian Gulf, representing 14 million Christians.
[2] The MECC was founded in May 1974 at its first General Assembly in Nicosia, Cyprus with the stated purpose to "deepen the spiritual fellowship among the churches of the Middle East, and to unite them in word and deed.
[5] He was replaced after two terms by Guirgis Saleh, a Coptic Orthodox theologian and professor, at the Eighth General Assembly in 2003 and served until 2011, at which point Father Boulos Rouhana, of the Maronite Church, was appointed.
The term of Father Boulos Rouhana was cut short when he was appointed to the position of Bishop in the Maronite Church.
[8] In 1994 (the year of the signing between Pope John Paul II and Patriarch-Catholicos Mar Dinkha IV of a “Common Christological Declaration," the proposal for admission of the Assyrian Church of the East into the MECC was not successful either, “due to the refusal of the Coptic Orthodox Church, which still considered the Assyrians as Nestorians, therefore as heretics.”[9][10] The core programs of the MECC are those which directly contribute to its well-being and vision.
[18] It offers humanitarian aid as well as community development projects to Iraqi and Syrian refugees living in Jordan.
[19] The Department of Services for Palestinian refugees was formed in 1951 to respond to the humanitarian crisis caused by the Arab-Israeli war of 1948.
[20] Christian Zionists, who have long represented a fragment of historic and contemporary Protestants,[21][22][23][24][25] are characterised as those "distort the interpretation of the Word of God" and "damage intra-Christian relations".