In a few days' time, we will learn the name of the new Armenian patriarch of Jerusalem. Four or five names have been see-sawing in the consciousness of those following these developments for many long weeks already. But the haze of speculation will finally be removed with the elections and actual votes of the members of the St James Brotherhood (36 in all).

To start 2013, I will be taking part in a special broadcast looking at the sweep of change across the Middle East and North Africa in 2012. The details are as follows.

We are so close to the joy of Christmas. My thoughts and prayers are therefore with countless friends, Christian and otherwise, across the Middle East and North Africa region.

Following my reflection last week on the death of Patriarch Ignatius IV Hazim on 5 December (http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/17573, I should add that his successor has just been elected at Balamand Monastery in Beirut, in the early morning hours of Monday 17 December 2012.

For the final Middle East analysis podcast of 2012, we have chosen to set aside, temporarily, the hard political angles and social realities of the Middle East North Africa region and instead focus on the seasons of Advent and Christmas.

As reported on Ekklesia (http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/17561) yesterday, Patriarch Ignatius IV Hazim of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch & All the East passed away as a result of a stroke at St George’s hospital in Lebanon on 5 December 2012 at the age of 92.

At their recent plenary meeting, the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales reflected on the tragedy afflicting Syria and Gaza.

The latest Middle East and North Africa (MENA) podcast, conducted with James Abbott at the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales, looks at Palestine's new situation at the United Nations, after the General Assembly recently voted to bestow on it Non-Observer Member State status.

In my latest Middle East analysis podcast, attention is focused on the maelstrom of violence tearing through Syria. If reports are to be believed, this conflict continues to claim between 100 and 200 lives a day.

On 6 November 2012, the Armenian Church and its community in the UK & Ireland recall the first anniversary of the ordination at Holy Etchmiadzin of their serpazan or bishop as the primate of the Armenian Apostolic Church.