The Middle East Council of Churches was inaugurated in May 1974 at its First General Assembly in Nicosia, Cyprus, and is now headquartered in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. Initially it contained three "families" of Christian Churches in the Middle East, the Eastern Orthodox Churches, the Oriental Orthodox Churches and the Evangelical Churches. These were joined in 1990 at the MECC Fifth Assembly by the Catholic Churches of the region. It is a regional council affiliated with the mainstream ecumenical movement which also gave birth to the World Council of Churches, of which the Middle East Council of Churches is also a member.