Patriarch of the Maronite Church, Lebanon
Maronite Patriarch Mar Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi
Born in 1947 in Beirut, Lebanon, His Holiness Catholicos Aram I Keshishian, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, received a Master’s degree in Theology from the Near East School of Theology, and another Master's in Sacred Theology from the American University of Beirut, followed by a PhD from Fordham University in New York. He was ordained as a priest in 1968 and was elected as the Primate of the Armenian Orthodox Community in Lebanon in 1979. In 1995, he was elected Catholicos (head of the church) by the Electoral Assembly of the Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia. He served as the Catholicosate's Representative for Ecumenical Relations from 1972 to 1995. He is a founding member of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) in 1974.
In 1975, he was elected to be a member of the Faith and Order Commission at the World Council of Churches (WCC) and, in 1983, he became a member of the Standing Committee of the Council. In the same year, he was also elected as a member of the Central Committee of the WCC. In 1991, His Holiness was elected as Moderator of the Central and Executive Committees of the WCC.
