The WCC Secretary General Reverend Professor Dr. Jerry Pillay on a Visit to His Holiness Catholicos Aram I in Lebanon

As part of his tour in Lebanon on the occasion of the Fiftieth Year of the Founding of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), the Secretary General of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Reverend Professor Dr. Jerry Pillay visited His Holiness Catholicos Aram I, Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Holy See of Cilicia, President of the World Council of Churches for the Orthodox Family, and Honorary President of the Middle East Council of Churches, on Wednesday 20 March 2024, at the Armenian Orthodox Catholicosate of Cilicia - Antelias. (All Photos)

Reverend Professor Dr. Pillay was accompanied by Mrs. Carla Khijoyan, the WCC Programme Executive for the Middle East, a delegation from the Armenian Orthodox Catholicosate of Cilicia, which included Father Hrant, the Ecumencial Officer at the Catholicosate and WCC Central Committee Member, and Father Dajad, Chancellor of the Catholicosate and Director of “Birds’ Nest” orphanage in the Lebanese region of Byblos, as well as Mrs. Seta Hadeshian, the MECC Associate Secretary General, and an MECC delegation.

In a private session, His Holiness Catholicos Aram I met with Reverend Professor Dr. Jerry Pillay. They discussed many Ecumenical issues in addition to the most prominent challenges surrounding the Ecumenical work. They also stressed the importance of strengthening the Ecumenical relations between Churches and the necessity of praying and working together for peace and preserving human dignity in the Middle East and the world.

Following the meeting, Dr. Pillay raised his Prayers in the Catholicosate’s Church as well as in the Martyrs’ Memorial Monument of the Armenian Genocide (1915).