Armenian Apostolic Holy Church The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin

Your Excellency the President of the Republic of Armenia,
Your Excellency the President of the Artsakh Republic,
Your Eminences, Your Graces, Reverend Fathers,
Honorable State Officials, Representatives of Diplomatic Missions,
Benefactors, Representatives of the Arts and Sciences,
Dear and pious sons and daughters of our Holy Church,

We are deeply moved by your presence, and with a joyful and encouraged heart greet you who have gathered in this hall from throughout Armenia and Artsakh, and our various communities in the Diaspora, to participate in this celebration of our 60th birthday and 12th anniversary of enthronement.  Your presence here today and your love for our Holy Church place greater obligation on us and our clergy in our mission of service to the Armenian Church, to which you are supportive and helpful to your fullest capacity with your devotion and loyal commitment.  We are moved by your warm congratulations and best wishes, President Serzh Sargsian and President Bako Sahakian.  Your kind and constant attention toward our Church and your participation at this event is yet another testament of the diligent care on the part of the native state towards the Armenian Church and the important role and mission it has in the life of our people.  We extend our fraternal love to the incumbents of the hierarchal sees of our Holy Church, who were at our side during these joyous days with their representatives, conveying their heartfelt, warm wishes to us.

We were guided to ecclesiastical service, bearing in our soul the warm eagerness to bring our efforts and dedication to the spiritual life of our people, to their welfare and progress, and to their hopes for a better tomorrow.  This desire guided us everywhere, in every responsibility – in parish life, as a diocesan ordinary and as Catholicos of All Armenians – to which we were called by the Will of God and the election of the nation.  We ascended to the Throne of the Illuminator by renewing our oath of service and the vision of the reborn and unified life of our people.  With an appeal and prayer for God’s blessing and assistance, we kneeled down before the Holy Altar of our Lord’s Descent, the revered tomb of St. Mesrop Mashtots and the Holy Sites of our Lord in Jerusalem.  With fraternal love, we visited the heads of Sister Churches, strengthening the good relationships between our Churches; we visited our dioceses dispersed around the globe, distributing the blessing of Holy Etchmiadzin to our people, reinforcing their faith and exhorting them to keep their Armenian identity and Armenian life strong.  We were heartened by witnessing the renaissance of faith of our people living with love for the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin and our homeland, and their renewed hopes for the nation.  It was thus – encouraged and with a hopeful heart – that we began our path as the first servant of the Armenian Church.

We considered this time to be a defining and responsible one, when the imperatives and necessities of our ecclesiastical life were becoming more apparent on a daily basis, in the fundamentally changed and changing realities of life.  A condition and beginning of transformations were the independence of the homeland and the liberation of Artsakh.  With the reestablishment of native statehood, our Church was once again given the freedom to work, unencumbered relationships between homeland and diaspora became possible, and our sons and daughters dispersed throughout the world were able to solidify their efforts for the sake of making real the goals and aspirations for nation and church.  The good morning of our national life was filled with hope, and bounty strengthened day by day.  “Behold, now is the accepted time,” when, as we believed, the efforts of our people would be abundantly blessed.

We accepted the responsibility of Pontiff of All Armenians with the vision to achieve programs called to strengthen the Church and to make her mission in our national life a strong presence.  And it was to this end for which our predecessors of blessed memory, Vasken I and Karekin I, Catholicoi of All Armenians, worked during the first years of our independent statehood.  We placed importance on a number of priorities in our labors, having the goal of transforming ecclesiastical life into a fully organized structure, to strengthen the Christian knowledge of our people, to educate and nurture our young generation of children with the sacred faith of our fathers, Christian values and native traditions, and to make effective the Mother See’s mission of gathering together Armenians with the love of our Lord Jesus Christ and the homeland. 

The path of achieving these church-building programs of the Mother See was not always easy and smooth.  Likewise, the resources were not always present or fully apparent.  We offer thanks to God, as we had that which was most vital – the assistance of our oath-bound clergy and the support of our native state and faithful people.  The accomplishments of the past twelve years, which are the cause of our happiness today, are the result of the comprehension and aspirations of all our people to rebuild the traditions and legacy of our forebears, and to live with faith in Christ, His righteousness and trust in His luminous life.

The celebrations of the significant commemorations of our Christian life – the 1700th Anniversary of the Declaration of Christianity as the State Religion of Armenia, the 1600th Anniversary of the Creation of the Armenian Alphabet, and the 1000th Anniversary of the Lamentations of Narek – were exceptional opportunities and brilliant testimonies to a renewal of faith, a national renaissance and optimism.  Our people gathered together in prayer for the consecration of newly built and reconstructed churches, the blessing of the Holy Chrism, and national and ecclesiastical celebrations.  In Armenia and the Diaspora, they joyfully and proudly celebrated the 20th anniversary of the independence of the Republic of Armenia, observed the anniversaries of our historical monasteries, sanctuaries and national institutions, and commemorated the jubilees of our elders and memorable events in our cultural life.  It is with great happiness that we reflect today on the opportunities we had to grant the highest appreciation of our Church and present awards and letters of blessings to numerous individuals in the fields of science, education and culture – for their merits and efforts; and to many diligent clergymen, benefactors and devoted sons and daughters – for their services provided to our Church.  We have achieved results through the blessing of our Lord in the spheres of new clergy preparation, church building, publications, Christian education and ministry.  The Shoghakat TV Company began broadcasting, Armenian Church History was included in the curriculum of public schools, and a new beginning was given to the Armed Forces Chaplaincy, the prison ministry and the hospital ministry.  Social services programs to provide assistance to those in need and at risk were implemented.  We are grateful to reflect also that the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin has been beautified and is ongoing beautification.   The new buildings, the renovated historic structures, the creation of new departments and offices, all contribute to a more efficient and more productive implementation of the work of the Mother See.  These results and accomplishments are a hopeful beginning, which shall serve as a foundation and prerequisite to transform the work of our Church and make it equal to the expectations of our people and the demands of the times.

It is further joyful for us that our native authorities support and assist the work of the Mother See.  The exceptional role and mission of the Holy Armenian Apostolic Church in the spiritual life of the Armenian people, their cultural development and protection of their identity is confirmed by constitutional provision.  A separate law codifies the relationship between Church and state.  Our history provides the best testimony that a harmonious and interwoven life between Church and state grants blessed bounty, by which we believe that the present day and future of our homeland shall be strengthened and illuminated.  We express our appreciation and thanks to President Serzh Sargsian of Armenia, President Bako Sahakian of Artsakh, and the authorities of our land, as well as the past presidents of Armenia and Artsakh and former state officials, for the support they have provided to the Armenian Church.

At this time, it is with regret and pain that we recall as well the losses we have experienced over these past years, the ruined Armenian churches in Georgia and the thousands of Khachkars that were destroyed in Julfa (Nakhijevan).  The loss of Armenian Church properties outside the borders of Armenia remain of deep concern, the violations against Armenian churches and holy sites – the preservation for which all efforts are being invested, including those of our native state.  We experienced painful losses of clergymen – among them both aged and young – whom we remember with prayer and appreciation.  We felt fatherly regret and sadness for instances of defrocked clergymen and those who resigned their calling on their own volition.
Today, when it is time to reflect, we remember as well the events of the past decade that caused sorrow to the life of our people – the acts of terrorism in the National Assembly and the deplorable events of March 1 that followed the presidential elections and the resulting crises.  Concerned with these realities, we called upon our people to be vigilant and sober; we enacted efforts to not endanger our statehood and to create an environment of peace and stability which would provide the opportunity to resolve the existing problems. 

The Church has never remained silent or indifferent to the difficulties darkening our national life or the realities troubling and unsettling our people, although it is frequently criticized and accused as such – at times with an uninformed, naïve heart, and at others purposefully and with malevolence.  The Church has never adopted a policy of aggrandizement – either toward the authorities or to any movement or political party; or spoken and labored for the sake of winning popular opinion.  The Church has been guided by remaining zealously vigilant to the interests of all our people and state, remaining above positions and intrigues that expressed fragmentary interests.  The Armenian Church’s position toward the native state is one and the same throughout all times:  to support its strength, might and welfare; to instill in our people faith, love and unity.  It is in this position that the Church sees its authority, and it is also to this end that its mission is served.  In the face of difficulties and challenges, the Church brings the preaching of the Gospel, so that man is renewed in spirit and transformed, since the spiritual and intellectual progress of society is the primary precondition to the reformation and advancement of life.  Along with the good news of our salvation in Christ, the Gospel brings a directive – “to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” Ephesians 4:24.

As much life as God grants us, as much strength and opportunities as He gifts, we shall bring them to bear for the vibrancy of our Holy Church.  The most important condition of the reinforcement and reformation of our national and ecclesiastical life and our highest duty – working in collaboration with the hierarchal sees of our Church – is to bring to its beneficial conclusion the creation of the Constitution of the Armenian Church; the fully functional reestablishment of the National Ecclesiastical Assembly; the specific and clear formulations of the Armenian Church’s positions on theological, liturgical, moral-ethical and social issues – by which the mission of our Church in our national life will become greater effective.  We shall invest efforts to call to life future perspectives, such as the comprehensive implementation of parish life with all of its components, the restoration of monastic life with a prayerful spirit and the labors of learned archimandrites, the strengthening of spiritual life – expressed not only through piety, but also with a literacy of faith. 

Christianity is not merely a tradition – it is our belief.  The time is now, that along with our general, multi-faceted education, we be fully informed as well in our Christian consciousness and the liturgical, doctrinal and historical life of the Church.  Our people, who are tied to the Armenian Church with warm love, must also comprehend the principles and requirements of faith, and live and be guided by them.  It is from this vantage point that all accomplishments of ecclesiastical life are evaluated, and it is with this goal that the work of our Church shall continue to be guided and reinforced, so that we may overcome the time that was lost and in all manner, complement our losses and rebuild our ruins.  We remain optimistic, that the current state of relations with the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia shall lead us to overcome the internal division of the Church and the restoration of its canonical condition.

Our Church shall continue its mission for the peaceful, secure, prosperous and vibrant life of our homeland.  The homeland is the anchor of hope for all Armenians.  Our people dispersed throughout the world, look to the homeland as they look to their future, and envision it joyous, bright with faith, blooming with culture and science, as their native home and the refuge for all Armenians.  We once more extend our appreciation and blessings to the noble and generously benevolent sons and daughters of our people, who for their love of the vibrancy of our spiritual and national life and the strength of our homeland, sponsor the construction of churches, educational, cultural, philanthropic and national institutions; provide their operational costs; implement multifaceted economical and social programs in Armenia, Artsakh and the Diaspora.  We convey our special appreciation to the diligent members of the Armenian General Benevolent Union, led by its president, Berge Setrakian, Louise Manoogian-Simone and the Manoogian Family, and all benefactors of the Mother See who support her mission, who with filial love and devotion provided the possibility to beautify our cherished spiritual center and bring to life the programs of the Mother See.  We convey our blessings and appreciation as well to members of the Supreme Spiritual Council, our diocesan and parish councils, educators and artists, who through their dedication are making the work of our ecclesiastical and national institutions fruitful.  With a blissful spirit and Pontifical love, we extend our blessings to all our people, who taking refuge in God, with an optimistic spirit, noble devotion and righteous labor are creating their luminous and faith-built tomorrow.  Dear ones, our message to you today and all our sons and daughters around the globe, is the same exhortation that has been given for centuries by our pontiffs: Stay steadfast with our Church and Homeland.  Let us support our native state with all our ability and serve to the progress, vibrancy and prosperity of the life of our people.

Let us appeal and pray, that our lives remain always under the mercy and graces of God, and that peace accompanies us everywhere in the homeland and the dispersion.  May the Armenian nation live with the heaven-sent graces of faith, hope and love, today and always. Amen.