| has gloss | eng: The Union of the Armenian Evangelical Churches in the Near East (UAECNE) is an autonomous body of churches comprising 25 congregations throughout Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Iran Iraq and Australia. Beginning in the second decade of the 19th century as an indigenous reform movement within the Armenian Apostolic Church, it developed into an independent community in 1846 in Istanbul to become known as the Armenian Evangelical Church and in subsequent decades registered a membership of 60,000 throughout the Ottoman Empire. After the First World War, when the Armenian population was devastated and the remnant deported from its historic homeland in what is now called Turkey, the Union was reorganized in Syria and Lebanon. The Union is composed of autonomous congregations. Its organizational pattern is a kind of modified congregationalism. The annual convention of the Union is the highest authority, presided by Rev. Megerdich Karageozian. The central committee of 12 members, elected at the convention, acts as an administrative body supervising and coordinating the activities of the member churches and church related institutions. |