The Reformed Church in the Middle East: Hopes and Challenges – Najla Kassab Abousawan is the president of the World Communion of Reformed Churches and is an ordained minister in the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon (NESSL). She obtained her B.A. in Christian education from the Near East School of Theology and her M.Div. from Princeton Theology Seminary. In 1993 she received the first preaching license offered to a woman by the NESSL and in 2017 she became the second woman to be ordained as a minister in NESSL. She has worked for two and a half decades with NESSL’s women and children’s ministries, including as Director of Christian Education. She was elected to the WCRC Executive Committee at the 2010 Uniting General Council. She lives with her husband and three children in Beirut, but her work takes her frequently to Syria.
