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Ecumenical Engagement 179

has been deepened in the last fifty years.
Two factors played an important role in
this process. First, the participation of
these churches in the ecumenical movement
enabled their representatives to discuss
issues pertaining to their family and also
to adopt common ecumenical approaches.
Second, the conference of the heads of the
Oriental Orthodox churches in Addis Ababa
(1964), initiated by the emperor Haile
Selassie, which was the first meeting of its
kind in the history of this family, opened a
new era of organized collaboration. A Stand-
ing Committee appointed by the conference
endeavored to promote intra-family coopera-
tion in theological education, ministerial for-
mation, evangelism, Christian education,
pastoral engagement, diakonia, and ques-
tions related to peace and justice. The two
Catholicosal Sees of the Armenian Church
participated actively in the work of the
Standing Committee. Due to both internal
and external conditions, the Standing Com-
mittee ceased functioning after almost a
decade of intensive work.
In 1995, together with Anba Shenouda III,
the late Patriarch of the Coptic Church, and
Zakka Iwas II, the late Patriarch of the Syrian
Church, we established a fellowship of the
Armenian, Coptic, and Syrian churches,
those members of the Oriental Orthodox
family whose headquarters are in the Middle