The interlocutor of “Hraparak” is Tovmas Arakelyan, youth bearer of Tavush Diocese, blogger.
- As much as the authorities are trying to discredit the Armenian Apostolic Church, it is obvious that the church’s role in society has increased even more today. It has become active, it has come to the fore, the clergy is speaking, they are next to the people. People place their hopes on the church and church members. What causes this?
- According to me, the role of the church has not increased, but people’s attention has come to the church. There is a common thing among our people: when they get sick, they turn to doctors, then to fortune-tellers, then to charlatans, they spend money calling for help from all kinds of false and correct anti-scientific circles, and finally they come to the church. Today we are on the same path, just nationwide. This is a nationwide issue. We have fallen into the hands of various charlatans and traitors and like a prodigal son we have understood that our country has one mother and that is the church. The motherland has one mother, the mother church, and there is no need to look for salvation elsewhere. Only in this way can we return the truth, getting rid of lies and falsehood. The Church is not doing anything artificial today, it is doing what it has done for millennia.
- Doesn’t official propaganda hinder and constrain the church and its members?
- It doesn’t bother us because we have great immunity. The church is able to stand firm in the face of it all. The church characterizes its class as a congregation, we are a congregation, if you notice, all the ministers of the church – Saint Mikael, Saint Bagrat, Saint Arshak, they are all very united, they are in the same ideological lines. Today, when clergymen are targeted, they know that they are not being targeted, but the idea, but we are not alone in our ideology, because our ideology is the ideology of the Armenian Apostolic Church. No one can target Christ and Christ’s church. Who are they now against, the church of Christ?
- And how would you characterize today’s activity of the church? At least during the newly independent history, the apostolic church did not fight against handing over to the country. There was no occasion. And today… some say that churchmen have become involved in politics. What description would you give?
- It is our millennial work – to preach the truth, to keep the truth alive against lies. All this is not new for us. We have a patristic, biblical heritage, and the church’s struggle has always been against lies. Now, what face, image and name the lie is standing in front of us is not important anymore. The satellite of lies is the devil. The same devil that the church has always fought against. The difference is that today there is the Internet, the latest technologies, but what Elder Ghevond did, His Holiness Bagrat does, what Father Khrimyan did, His Holiness does today, I don’t see any difference. The church also shows that one can be independent. What attacks there were by the Russian Empire, the USSR, the Persian and Muslim caliphates, but the Armenian Apostolic Church remained independent with its own agenda, having normal relations with the Orthodox and Catholic Churches, not going to extremes.
- What do you think, will the public trust the church to the end, will the church be able to unite the public? Will there be a result?
- People are always unpredictable, you have to fight and not give up. The Tavush world, as declared by His Holiness Bagrat, is a world of hope. It is necessary to live and fight in the world of hope. We are children of hope. If we have the patience of hope – many have hope but not patience – everything will be fine.
You can read the full article here: https://hraparak.am/post/b76e34195b058e631ac4581ad7cd70ba