Armenia was the first nation in the world to officially adopt Christianity as its national religion in 301 AD. Having survived the test of time and history, the Church in Armenia today faces another serious challenge — the rejuvenation of the Christian faith in a country bruised by seventy years of Communist rule. In April, 1995, His Holiness Karekin I was elected Catholicos and Supreme Patriarch of All Armenians.
Question: The Christian faith has been the savior of generations of Armenians in the Diaspora. Now that religious freedom is guaranteed in Armenia, what measures are being taken to fill the religious vacuum created by decades of communist rule? In a country of 3.5 million, what specific steps are being taken to open new churches in every Armenian village, town and city, and educate hundreds of clergy to serve the spiritual needs of the nation?
Answer: In the Soviet era, the church became a kind of a static and stagnant institution. The Holy Mother See of Etchmiadzin, being the spiritual center of the whole Armenian church, being the most sacred shrine for all Armenians around the world, kept alive the tradition and the heritage, but was not able to enter into a process of action which I would characterize by the word apostate — a church that goes out to the people, interprets the Christian principle and traditions of our fathers to the people. The church was an institution to which the people came, rather than the church going out to the people.
How to turn the institution into a movement that is the question before us. When I was elected and enthroned as Catholicos of all Armenians, I felt it in my bones that my task was to initiate, with the help of our clergy and lay people here in Armenia and in the Diaspora, a process of organized and programmed action for the re-Christianization of our own country. The faith had not been completely eclipsed, the faith had not died, but the faith was a memory of ancient tradition, rich in its content, honorable in its artistic great achievement but not a faith that worked and operated in the lives of the people.
That Christian faith in the minds and lives of the people must be nurtured by education. That means transmitting to the people the true meaning and principles proclaimed by Christ in his gospel and adopted by our fathers. Now it is the time to reenergize, to reactivate that church in the day to day lives of our own people.
And for this purpose, let me indicate a few lines of action. First, The education and formation of a new generation of clergy that can respond to the aspirations and needs of the people. Not keeping the tradition, but making the tradition alive in the daily life of the people. We need to strengthen the theological training in the seminary here in Etchmiadzin. To enlarge the student body in number and to enhance the quality of theological training by relating that training to the lives of the people. And here I believe that if we do so, we will have helped immensely our nation and our state, the independent Republic of Armenia. I personally believe that without this moral under our girdle, a nation cannot be strong by only economic progress or other factors.
Second, building of new churches in the different cities and villages and the rebuilding, repairing and renovation of the existing centuries-old churches. I have made six journeys since my election, all within the so- called internal Dioceses of our church in Armenia, Russia, Artsakh, and Georgia. In all these pastoral visits, I sensed the expectations of the people. The people are ready to listen, but who is going to speak, and to speak not in words, but in deeds, in action.
This is what the people are expecting these days, and in this area, I must add one word, mainly that there is preaching, and preaching. There is preaching that does not make any impact, and even may leave the people indifferent, and there is preaching in which the whole person of the preacher is involved. The preaching which relates the truth of the Gospel to the daily problems of the people is the kind of preaching that is needed today in Armenia. We need the formation of clergy who will be well equipped for this kind of preaching.
Third, we need to initiate in our community lives here a social service type of activity. The country and the people here in Armenia are passing through very difficult conditions economically, and socially. If the church does not respond to the daily needs of the people in its own capacity, of course, then the preaching may be left in the air. Preaching and serving go together ... Jesus did not only preach, did not only speak, but he healed the sick, he helped the poor. In one word, he identified himself with the conditions of the lives of the people.
The Holy Mother See, together with the Dioceses in Armenia, have to be energized to bring about that kind of service to our people because if we don't do it, what will happen? As it is happening now, non-Armenian para-Church organizations and sects are spreading around. They are not only preaching but they are also helping financially various sectors of our population in this country. We cannot leave the field in a vacuum. We have to fill the field with action. That is how I see the present day juncture of our church here in Armenia, and that is how I see the immediate, urgent, and most important role of the church.
Question: Your Holiness, historically, the Armenian Apostolic church has often played a major role in education and like the Evangelists, Armenian Catholics and Jesu its, has operated schools in various communities around the world. Given the new opportunities following independence, private education could very well be the key to quality education in Armenia. What role do you see the Armenian Church playing in this domain?
Answer: Indeed this question is a very wise and at the same time a very wide question. I would like to respond by first saying two things. First, the church in Armenia is not yet prepared to enter the field of regular education of the people because for 70 years education has been the affair of the state and today, as is the case of many democratic countries in the West, largely speaking education is the affair of the ministries of education. Here in Armenia, the church and state are separate in the same sense as in the case of the United States and other democratic countries.
Second, the Armenian Church today does not have the financial means to enter the field of private education. It may come one day, but at present the first priority for the church is to organize the Christian religious education of our young generations who are already enrolled in the public schools. In that respect I am very happy to tell you that the government is open to all kinds of initiatives taken by the church in the teaching of the Christian faith.
As far as I can gather, in different dioceses here, we have teachers whom the church sends to the schools to teach the Christian faith. I was very much thrilled and encouraged to see a seminar organized here in Etchmiadzin. Two hundred thirty teachers were here for a whole day attending lectures and debates and participating in question and answer sessions.
We have established the Center for Christian Education in Holy Etchmiadzin. We have an office and staff who will continue the process of formation of teachers for Christian education. In the Diocese of Yerevan every week there will be a special course for that kind of service. If we, as an Armenian church, can later afford the means of having our own private schools, I will not be against such a venture, but we have to calculate our means, both in terms of manpower and economic possibilities.
In the meantime, there is something else that can be done, and that is what you call adult education in the United States. The church can do much work by organizing courses for university students, for parents, and for young couples, to give them the true instruction in the Christian faith.
Question: Your Holiness, the collapse of the Soviet Union has brought to light a large Armenian Diaspora within the frontiers of the Old Empire. Given the negative effects of communism on the Christian faith, what measures are you taking to revitalize the Armenian religious infrastructure in Moscow, where more than half a million Armenians live, and in cities like St. Petersburg, Armavir, New Nakhichevan and many others.
Answer: Indeed I am very happy that you asked that question. I remember when my beloved predecessor the late Catholicos Vazken faced this situation toward the end of his life. Once when I was visiting him as Catholicos of Cilicia, he said to me: "So many new communities have emerged that we do not know anything about, and today if only we had 50 more clergymen, we would be able to respond to their needs."
After I became Catholicos, and after I consulted with the spiritual leaders in these regions you mentioned, I realized that indeed this is a primary task for Holy Mother See of Etchmiadzin. You mentioned Moscow. I went to Moscow recently and I spent three days there. I met the community, and I realized after consulting with the Diocesan Bishop how great the need is because most of the people do not even speak Armenian. Now there is a new awareness of their identity. They want to learn, they want to be associated with their motherland and with their church.
The question is how to provide these communities with new churches and new clergymen. Let me give you an example. In the whole of Moscow, we don't have yet a decent church in the sense of a building. People go to the cemetery where there is a small chapel. We must have a church in a big city with such a large Armenian community that can provide the possibility for Armenians to meet in their spiritual home.
Thanks to God, in St. Petersburg now we have two churches open, as we do in Ukraine. In the south of Russia, where there are so many Armenians, we have a vicar who is doing a very good job.
One of the most moving things I recently experienced was when community representatives came to me from Samarkand and said they had rebuilt a church there. So I sent an Archbishop to consecrate the church and a report tells me that a renewal movement has already started there. There are so many demands for spiritual help from the new Diaspora where the church and its mission is at its beginning. We need to build new churches and renovate old ones. We also need to provide them with clergy. The task is immense and the burden is very heavy, but we have to face it.
