The Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation is honored to announce that this esteemed and highly revered spiritual leader of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Archbishop Nourhan Manougian has joined our International Advisory Board.  
 
HE Archbishop Nourhan Manougian, the 97th Patriarch of the Armenian Apostolic (Orthodox) Church, Jerusalem, was elected on January 24, 2013 during the middle of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Archbishop Manougian will join the other heads of churches in Jerusalem and the United States who are working with and supportive of the HCEF mission to the presence of the Christians in the Holy Land. 
HCEF continues to build its international advisory board and foster unity to provide teamwork to support our people. Members of HCEF's Advisory Board are spiritual leaders and respected members of the community who support efforts to bring justice, peace and prosperity to the Christians of the Holy Land, and who also share HCEF's goals for humanitarian support of those who suffer oppression in the Holy Land.  
 
Archbishop Nourhan Manougian was born in Aleppo, Syria.  He studied at the seminary of the Catholicosate of Cilicia in Antelias, Lebanon. In 1966, he was accepted to the theological seminary of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem. His days as a student at the Patriarchate culminated in his ordination to the priesthood and his membership in the St. James Brotherhood in 1971. A year later, he was appointed the pastor of the Armenians of Switzerland. Subsequently, he returned to the Middle East and served as the pastor to the Armenian communities of Jaffa and Haifa. In 1980, he was assigned the position of pastor of the Armenian community of Holland.
 
Manougian visited the US and pursued his graduate studies at New York's General Theological Seminary. He subsequently served the Eastern Diocese as the pastor of St. Mark Church of Springfield, Mass., and then St. Kevork Church of Houston, Texas. Upon returning to Jerusalem, Manougian was elected Grand Sacristan of the Holy See in 1998. A year later, Catholicos of all Armenians Karekin II elevated him to the rank of bishop.
 
On behalf of the HCEF Board of Directors, Sir Rateb Rabie, KCHS, HCEF President and CEO welcomes Archbishop Nourhan Manougian in this statement, "We are confident that the diversity of our Advisory Board and the quality of its members are the best hope for preserving the Christian presence in the Holy Land." He further expressed his gratitude to the Advisory Board whose members continue to be an outstanding source of support, morally, financially and spiritually, for HCEF in its commitment to its mission and efforts to ameliorate the living conditions of the Christians in the Holy Land.