Church Archives

Syria: Turkish Supported Al-Nusra terrorist destroys churches, desecrates cemeteries in Latakia

February 2, 2016 By administrator

Al-Nusra Front has destroyed the churches of Syrian village of Ghnemye in Latakia’s north, Arevelk cited one of the residents as saying.

Upon returning to the town, the resident found his home demolished.

“The Armenian and Evangelical churches of the village have been completely destroyed, with cemeteries desecrated,” Arevelk said.

Anti-government protests developed into a civil war that four years on has grown to a stalemate, with the Assad government, Islamic State, an array of Syrian rebels and Kurdish fighters all holding territory.

More than 250,000 Syrians have been killed and a million injured. Some 11,5 million others have been forced from their homes, of whom four million have fled abroad – including growing numbers who are making the dangerous journey to Europe.

Iran, Russia and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement are propping up the Alawite-led Assad government, while Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar back the more moderate Sunni-dominated opposition, along with the U.S., UK and France. Hezbollah and Iran have pro-Assad forces on the ground, while a Western-led coalition and Russia are carrying out air strikes.

Armenian Apostolic Church celebrates Christmas

January 6, 2016 By administrator

The Armenian Church celebrates the holy birth (Sourp Dznount) of Jesus Christ on January 6. In Armenian tradition, this feast day commemorates not only the birth of Christ, but also His baptism by John the Baptist, www.armenianchurch-ed.net reports.

The latter is remembered through the “Blessing of Water” ceremony, which follows the Divine Liturgy on January 6.

On the eve of the Feast of the Nativity and Theophany of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Jrakalouyts Divine Liturgy (the lighting of the lamps service) is celebrated in honor of the manifestation of Jesus as the Son of God (theophany). It is custom for the faithful to hold lit candles during this special service.

On the following day, the mystery of our Lord’s baptism in the River Jordan is remembered in the ceremony of the Jurorhnek, or the “Blessing of Water.”

In ancient times, this ceremony was celebrated by the riverside or sea shore, but, for various reasons, it was later confined to the interior of the churches. During the ceremony, the cross is dipped in water, recalling Christ’s immersion in the Jordan River. Blessed oil, or Holy Chrism (Muron), is poured into the water from a dove-shaped container, symbolizing the appearance at the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove and the voice of the Father proclaiming to all that Jesus is His Son.

The Holy Chrism is prepared in Holy Etchmiadzin and is blessed by the Catholicos assisted by the bishops. Muron contains olive oil, balsam and the essence of forty different flowers and herbs. At the end of the ceremony, members of the congregation are given the blessed water to drink, thereby sharing in the life giving act of Christ. As water is essential to the life of the body, drinking the blessed water is a reminder that participation in the acts of Christ is essential for eternal life.

Why January 6?

Even at the time of the Holy Apostles, the traditions in the Christian churches in the different parts of the world were not uniform. In fact, Christmas was probably not observed at all in the very early Church. Later, the mysteries of the birth and baptism of Jesus Christ began to be observed on January 6.

By the end of the 3rd century, Christmas in Rome was celebrated on December 25, which coincided with a major pagan feast. The Eastern churches, meanwhile, continued to observe Christmas on January 6. The Armenian Church has maintained that ancient tradition to this day, whereas the Greek-speaking Christian world switched to the Latin tradition at the end of the 4th century.

Armenian-American households may exchange Christmas gifts on December 25, since it is the custom in American society to do so. In some of our churches in the United States, it has become traditional to observe the feast of St. Stephen the Proto-Martyr on Christmas Eve (December 24), though that feast is movable and may not always fall on December 24.

If possible, the faithful should fast during the seven-day period preceding January 6, and should inform their children that they are fasting as a way of preparation for Christmas. On the evening of January 5, families should attend church and participate in the celebration of the Christmas Eve Divine Liturgy. They should do the same on the morning of January 6.

Assailants blow up church in Yemen’s Aden

December 9, 2015 By administrator

This file photo shows a church atop a hill in the Tawahi district, Yemen’s southern port city of Aden. (AFP photo)

Unidentified attackers have exploded a Catholic church in Yemen’s southern port city of Aden, amid the ongoing Saudi military aggression against the impoverished Arab country.

According to residents, the abandoned church, which is located in the embattled city’s Mualla District, was blown up on Wednesday by gunmen who “were probably extremists.”

“We heard a strong explosion which sent a big plume of smoke into the air and afterward saw that the building was completely destroyed,” one resident said.

Constructed during the British colonial era in the 1960s, the Immaculate Conception Church was already severely damaged in a Saudi airstrike in May.

Yemen has been under military attacks by Saudi Arabia since late March. The Saudi strikes were launched to supposedly undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement and bring the fugitive former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, back to power.

Earlier this week, Mohammed Abdulsalam, the spokesman for Ansarullah, lashed out at Riyadh over sponsoring and supporting terrorist groups wreaking havoc in the southern parts of Yemen as the governor of Aden Province was killed after his convoy was hit by a car bomb attack.

Yemeni security officials said the December 6 incident took place when Jaafar Mohammed Saad was travelling with his entourage in the Tawahi district of Aden City. The Daesh Takfiri terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Abdulsalam warned about the spread of terrorism and growth of Saudi-backed Takfiri militant outfits in Yemen’s southern provinces, while criticizing Saudi aerial attacks together with assaults by al-Qaeda- and Daesh-affiliated terrorists for undermining the relative calm in Yemen’s northern provinces.

More than 7,500 people have been killed and over 14,000 others injured in the Saudi attacks since March 26. The strikes have also taken a heavy toll on the impoverished country’s facilities and infrastructure, destroying many hospitals, schools and factories.

There have been increased warnings that the aggression could strengthen the grip of terror groups across Yemen. Ansarullah revolutionaries have repeatedly declared the fight against extremism and terrorism as one of their main objectives.

Armenian church turned into cardboard warehouse in Turkey

November 21, 2015 By administrator

The Armenian church of Bayindir district in Turkey’s Izmir province has been turned into a warehouse after renovation, Ermenihaber.am reports citing Turkish Yeniasir news portal.

According to the chief of ruling AK Party’s regional office in Bayindir, Ugur Demirezen, the regional authorities, with Republican People’s Party (CHP) member Ufuk Melsi as their head, have turned the church into a warehouse themselves.

“Instead of opening a cultural center, they are using the church as a cardboard warehouse,” Demirezen noted, adding that the church, built in 1857, was turned into a cinema house after the proclamation of the republic.

In 2010, Izmir provincial administration and Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism renovated the church to later use it as a cultural center.

Around $350.000 was spent on the restoration, supervised by Bayindir ex-governor Mehmet Kertis, a ruling party representative.

Turkish soldiers used Armenian Church of St. Bartholomew as an outhouse

November 11, 2015 By administrator

photo by news.am

news.am report [Armenian] Church of St. Bartholomew located in the territory of the Turkish military unit, was for many years been used by the Turkish soldiers as an outhouse, the Kurdish DIHA agency reports.

The agency correspondent visited the church and inquired from competent authorities about the further fate of the shrine.

He found out that the church appeared in the territory of the military unit after the Armenian Genocide. The Turkish soldiers destroyed the Armenian inscriptions and mural paintings, and used the church as an outhouse.

The agency correspondent addressed the Culture and Tourism Division of the Turkish Van city, where he was told that there was an initiative to restore the church, but the project was not completed due to the absence of funds.

Legal settlement with Armenian church lets Getty Museum keep prized medieval Bible pages

September 21, 2015 By administrator

One of the eight illustrated table of contents pages from a 750-year-old Armenian Bible that the Getty Museum acquired in 1994. The Getty has reached a legal settlement with an American branch of the Armenian Apostolic Church in which the church is being recognized as owner — but is donating the works to the Getty. (J. Paul Getty Trust)

By Mike Boehm

The Getty Museum will keep eight brilliantly illustrated table of contents pages from a 750-year-old Armenian Bible after settling a long-running lawsuit brought by an American branch of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

The church contended they had been illegally separated from the rest of the book amid the Armenian genocide during World War I.

The Getty and the Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America jointly announced the settlement Monday. Both sides said they were happy with the outcome, but for very different reasons.

The Getty gets to keep the art, and the church gets recognition that all along it has been the rightful owner of the pages, which were separated about 100 years ago from a complete Bible called the Zeyt’un gospels.

The rest of the book is at the Matenadaran, a museum and library for manuscripts in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. The Getty bought its pages in 1994 from an Armenian American family for $1.5 million in today’s dollars.

Under the settlement, attorneys said, the church will donate the eight pages, known as a “canon table” that prefaces the rest of the Bible, to the Getty on Jan. 1, 2016. The Getty will pay all legal expenses from the suit the church had brought in 2010 – a sum attorneys for the two sides declined to disclose.

“It’s a resolution both sides are equally happy with, a win-win,” said Timothy Potts, director of the Getty Museum. “It’s an acknowledgment of their ownership, but maintains the work as an integral part of the collection here.”

Potts said that the Getty will keep custody of the manuscript pages until it officially takes ownership.

They were created during the mid-1200s by a renowned Armenian artist, T’oros Roslin, but were separated from the rest of the Zeyt’un Bible sometime during the upheaval caused by the Armenian genocide of 1915 to 1918. It claimed the lives of about 1.2 million Armenians under the Ottoman Empire, which became the modern republic of Turkey. The Turkish government disputes that a genocide took place.

Lee Boyd, the attorney for the Armenian church, said its main objective was not to wrest the pages from the Getty, which it feels has been a good custodian and offers continuing access to a Southern California public that includes a large number of Armenian Americans.

The foremost goal, she said, was to set the historic record straight and draw attention to the fact that there is much unfinished legal business for heirs of Armenian families or institutions that lost property during the Genocide.

“This is the first restitution of an artwork from the Armenian genocide,” Boyd said. “I hope it’s not the last. The case was brought to acknowledge the ownership of the church and [establish] recognition that they were taken during the Armenian genocide. It had devastating effects felt for generations, including much loss of cultural patrimony, particularly of the Armenian church.”

Before the settlement, according to court files, the church had sought the pages’ return, along with damages of at least $35 million. But both sides would have been on unpredictable legal terrain had the case proceeded, complicated by what Potts described as “lots of gray areas and facts we don’t know” relating to the manuscript pages’ whereabouts during and immediately after World War I.

According to court documents, the Zeyt’un Gospels were housed at a church in a traditionally Armenian area of what’s now Turkey. As chaos broke out, members of the Armenian community removed the prized Bible from the church for safe keeping. At some point the front pages with the most beautiful art were separated from the rest.

They wound up in possession of an Armenian man who immigrated to the United States in 1923, settling in Massachusetts. That family handed them down through generations until the Getty bought them more than 70 years later.

The pages became a highlight of the Getty’s collection of illuminated manuscripts. The materials – paint on vellum, a parchment made from calf’s skin — are too fragile and light-sensitive to be on permanent or frequent display, Potts said. But as delicate medieval manuscripts go, the Zeyt’un canon tables have been in heavy rotation, with one or more pages displayed in 11 exhibitions since 1997 – 10 at the Getty and one at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

They will have been out of view for 19 months when two of the pages go back on display Jan. 26 in the Getty’s exhibition “Traversing the Globe Through Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts.”

For the record, Sept, 21, 2:40 p.m.: an earlier version of this post incorrectly said that all eight of the Getty’s Armenian bible pages would be displayed in its upcoming exhibiiton of manuscripts.

The church’s legal position got a boost in December 2013 from a ruling in another art-restitution case brought against a Spanish museum, involving California heirs of a family that lost a painting by Camille Pissarro during the Holocaust.

The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals refused to declare unconstitutional a special 2011 California law that extends the statute of limitations for claims to recover allegedly stolen works held by museums and art dealers. That took away some of the Getty’s legal ammunition.

But Boyd, the Armenian church’s attorney, said that pushing forward rather than settling the suit would have meant fighting additional procedural battles over whether the church had waited too long to sue.

In court documents the Getty had pointed to articles published in 1943 and 1952 that showed church officials were fully aware that the family in Massachusetts possessed the canon tables, and did not take action to get them back.

Also important to the settlement, Boyd said, was the knowledge that the Getty can give the artworks the best scholarly attention and technical care. “The Matenadaran has expanded its preservation abilities, but [Armenia] is still an emerging economy and the resources are not there as they are at the Getty,” she said. Boyd said “there are hopes this resolution will forge a relation between the Getty and the Armenian church” in which the Getty, which has an international program for art conservation, would take on projects in Armenia.

Potts said that “it could happen…but that hasn’t been a part of the [settlement] agreement.”

The museum director said another future possibility is a joint exhibition in which the Getty would loan its pages to the Matenadaran for an exhibition of the entire Zeyt’un gospels in Armenia, and in turn the full book would be shown at the Getty.

More likely in the near term, Potts said, is a ceremony to mark the church’s donation of the art to the museum.

“It’s an important moment for both parties, and we would love for there to be some such event,” he said.

Source: latimes.com

Turkish police attack and loot Armenian church in Diyarbakir

September 17, 2015 By administrator

The St. Giragos Armenian Catholic Church in Turkey’s Diyarbakir city became the target of attacks by the Turkish police during the curfew announced in the city’s Sur municipality of Diyarbakir.

The policemen not only attacked the ancient church, but also stole certain historic items, Akunq.net reports.

President of the Armenian Association of Mesopotamia Arat Karagozyan said the Armenian community plans on filing a lawsuit with the court. According to him, the damage inflicted amounts to 300,000 Turkish liras.

“The police entered the church, breaking its historic doors. The large attack on the church is apparent. Six large historic faience pictures and a number of carved stones were stolen,” he said.

Earlier, St. Giragos suffered damages during clashes between Turkish police forces and Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militia.

ARMENIAN CHURCH A delegation of the Great House of Cilicia Catholicosate in the ruins of Sis

August 27, 2015 By administrator

After a delegation from the Committee of the Great House of Cilicia under the authority of Catholicos Aram I visited August 22 to Sis (Cilicia) to visit the ruins of the Armenian Catholicosate of possessions qu’Antelias demands of Turkey return . A Mass was celebrated on the scene, the ruins of the Catholicosate in Sis who was the seat of the Great House of Cilicia 1293 to 1915. In the ruins, was read the call for the Armenians Aram I, 100 years after genocide which also saw the departure of the Catholicosate to Antelias, a district of Beirut (Lebanon). Calling Aram I evoking the suffering of the Armenian people, massacres, deportation and the rights of the Armenian nation. It also requests the return of the Armenian Catholicosate of Sis heritage unjustly despoiled by Turkey.

Recall that on April 28, the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia had formally asked the Constitutional Court of Turkey, the return of the property of the Armenian Church to Sis. The same request was sent by Antelias to the European Court of Human Rights.

The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia who was in Sis, the capital of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia was looted by the Ottoman government in 1921 forcing the Catholicos Sahak II Khabayan to leave Sis and refuge successively in Jerusalem, Aleppo, Damascus, Cyprus and finally in 1930 in Antelias (Beirut).

Krikor Amirzayan (Գրիգոր Ամիրզայեան)

Mass in Turkey’s Armenian church cancelled over terrorism fears

August 24, 2015 By administrator

The annual holy mass in the reconstructed Armenian church on Turkey’s Akhtamar island has been cancelled over fears of new terrorist acts.

The Armenian patriarchate made a decision to cancel the ritual (set to take place on Sept 6), as well as the annual pilgrimage to the island in the wake of the past days’ deadly events in Van and the neighboring regions. It has issued a statement warning about the plan.
Since its re-opening in 2007, the renovated church annually hosted a liturgy ahead of the Feast of Cross.

Fresno Armenian Evangelical Churches Raise $35,000 for Syrian-Armenians

July 31, 2015 By administrator

FRESNO — On Saturday, June 13, 2015 Pilgrim Armenian Congregational Church and First Armenian Presbyterian Church joined efforts to host a relief benefit banquet for Armenians in Syria. The theme for the evening was “Hearts for Syria”.

The Co-Chair and Mistress of Ceremonies, Roseann Emerzian Saliba welcomed over 200 attendees and introduced the distinguished guests: Rev. Vahan and Yeritzgin Sossi Gosdanian; Rev. Nerses and Mrs. Sevan Balabanian, Honorary Consul to Armenia, Mr. Berj & Mrs. Arpi Apkarian; Appellate Court Justice Charles Poochigian and his wife, Fresno County Supervisor Chairwoman, Deborah Poochigian; and Fresno County Superior Court Judge, Edward and Mrs. Jacqueline Sarkissian.

The invocation was offered by Rev. Gregory Haroutunian; and the national anthems were performed by Miss Vera Darakjian in Armenian and Mrs. Jane Bedrosian in English, accompanied by Mrs. Faye DeLong. Mr. Oscar Luna provided two musical selections for the evening.

Mrs. Saliba opened the evening’s program with remarks, stating “for most of us, these past few months have been filled with a range of heart-felt emotions, beginning with the commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide on the one hand; and on the other hand, the devastating news of the increasing violence against Christians in Syria, where once again Armenians fall victim to persecution.”

Saliba remarked, “We know that Armenians have had a long history in Syria .having arrived there during the Armenian Genocide; and Syria did not hesitate to open its borders and support the persecuted Armenians.” She went on to say that her parents migrated to America through Syria during the Genocide; however, many remained, where they rebuilt their lives and thrived; and their culture was embraced. Most migrated to Aleppo, while others lived in smaller communities like Qamishli, Damascus, and Kessab. The Armenians established residences, opened businesses, built churches, hospitals, schools and libraries.

Over a period of time, they went from being penniless refugees to middle and upper class citizens – involved in all sorts of trade, education, medicine and traditional Armenian professions, such as carpets and jewelry-making.

Saliba said, “It is heartbreaking that today many of the descendants of those who found sanctuary in Syria, find themselves experiencing the same trauma as their forefathers; a rich history but an uncertain future. Syria, once a symbol of peace and security for our people, has now turned into a land without peace.”

She thanked the attendees for attending the banquet, and for their love and compassion for their sisters and brothers in Syria.

Following a delicious dinner catered by the Pilgrim Church Men’s Forum, Banquet Co-Chair, Edward Saliba, shared his heartfelt comments, relating his experience during the Lebanese Civil War to the situation in Syria, which he stated appeared much more severe.

The evening’s guest speaker was Mrs. Sevan Balabanian from San Francisco. Mrs. Balabanian had just returned from Lebanon where she and her husband, Rev. Nerses Balabanian, ministered to the Syrian-Armenians who had sought refuge there. She presented video clips from the President of the Armenian Evangelical Churches in Syria, Rev. Haroutiun Selimian and the Pastor of the Kessab Armenian Evangelical Church, Rev. Jirayr Ghazarian. Mrs. Balabanian then presented a powerful slide presentation depicting Armenian life before the conflict began, and the current situation. She brought many to tears, as they learned of the trauma and pain being inflicted on the Armenians.

Rev. Ara Guekguezian, Senior Pastor of the Pilgrim Armenian Congregational Church ended the evening with an inspiring plea for prayer and support, and concluded the evening with the benediction.