On May 17, 2021, His Holiness Patriarch Mor Ignatius Aphrem II presided over an online meeting of the General Secretariat of the Holy Synod. Their Eminences, members of the General Secretariat: Mor Justinus Boulos Safar, Patriarchal Vicar in Zahleh and Beqaa, Mor Philoxenus Mattias Nayis, Patriarchal Vicar in Germany, Mor Dionysius John Kawak, Patriarchal Vicar in the Archdiocese of Eastern USA, Mor Nicodemus Daoud Sharaf, Archbishop of Mosul, Kirkuk, Kurdistan and Environs, and Mor Timotheos Matta Al-Khoury, Archbishop of Homs, Hama, Tartous and Environs, participated in the meeting.

His Holiness opened the meeting with a prayer and then he discussed with their Eminences different topics related to our churches throughout the world. They also discussed the preparations of the meeting of the next Holy Synod.