"The First Refuge and the Last Defense: The Armenian Church, Etchmiadzin, and The Armenian Genocide"

The Armenian National Institute (ANI), the Armenian Genocide Museum of America (AGMA) and the Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly) jointly, and in cooperation with the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute in Yerevan, and the Republic of Armenia National Archives, announced the release of a major exhibit consisting of 20 panels with over 150 historic photographs documenting the role of the Armenian Church during the Armenian Genocide.

The Armenian Obsession with Churches

Raffi Bedrossyan

 



When someone visits Armenia for the first time, the tour itinerary invariably includes a multitude of churches and monasteries. Modern Armenia is the land of churches.

Historic Armenia in Anatolia was also a land of churches, with nearly 4000 churches and monasteries. The Van Lake region alone had over 300 churches. The ancient City of Ani, dubbed the City of 1001 Churches, contained 40 churches.

We are proud of our churches, awed at their architectural beauty and intricate construction techniques, amazed at their settings perched on inaccessible mountaintops.

Armenian Church, Survivor of the Ages, Faces Modern Hurdles

David M. Herszenhorn

 

ECHMIADZIN, Armenia — In this ancient city, tucked in a valley that has witnessed the rise and fall of empires, King Tiridates III converted to Christianity and declared Armenia to be the world’s first Christian state. The year was 301, more than a decade before the Emperor Constantine put Rome on a similar path.(1)      

Armenian Apostolic Church to canonize Genocide victims

The Episcopal Conference of the Armenian Apostolic Church, held from September 24-27 at the Holy See Echmiadzin and attended by 62 archbishops and bishops, discussed the issue of restoring the tradition of beatification and beatifying the victims of the Armenian Genocide.

First Bishops’ Synod in 600 Years Commences in Etchmiadzin

On September 24, 2013, His Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians, and His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, presided over the commencement of a Bishops’ Synod of the Armenian Church at the Mother See of Holy Echmiadzin, the first such congregation in 600 years. The Synod called together 62 archbishops and bishops (from a total of 75) from the church dioceses in Armenia and all around the world. They are due to discuss a number of theological and ecclesiastical issues over four days of meetings.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Vartan Matiossian

 



According to Gayane Abrahamian's report on EurasiaNet.org (September 27, 2012), "Experts claim that almost 50 percent of the 24,000 religious monuments in Armenia are in urgent need of repair, and that around 30 percent are on the verge of collapse." Claims of national pride for being the first country in the world to adopt Christianity as a state religion are worth nothing when the symbols of that pride are being disregarded, to put it mildly.