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ARMENIAN CONNECTIONS
By Gary Payton
The River Journal
http://riverjournal.com/vivvo/lifestyles/faithwalk/2200-garyfaith_armenia_payton_072011.html
July 7 2011
Idaho
on Gary's Faith Walk
As I gaze on the long winter snow receding on Baldy Mountain above
Sandpoint, I am taken back to another mountain and another place just
weeks ago. On that spring day, I looked out across the just waking
city of Yerevan, Armenia upon the snow-covered slopes of Mount Ararat,
the biblical mountain rising across the border in Turkey to 16,854
feet. In the book of Genesis, it is written, "in the seventh month,
on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the
mountains of Ararat." (Genesis 8:4)
Armenia is far distant from our daily consciousness here in the North
Country. Armenia today is a land locked nation of 3 million in the
southern Caucasus, a former republic of the Soviet Union, and the
first nation to adopt Christianity in the year 301. Armenians are an
ancient people who over the millennia have survived the onslaughts of
invasion, conquest, natural disasters, and genocide at the hands of an
imperial power. Their faith sustained them in the most desperate times.
My purpose was twofold: to explore new ways of connection with the
Armenian Apostolic Church, the Armenian Catholic Church, and the
Armenian Evangelical Church and to visit clinics, schools, cultural
centers and farm cooperatives supported by an NGO associated with
the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
In multiple visits over the past decade, I've traveled extensively in
former communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Yet, twenty
years after the breakup of the USSR, the legacy of the era stills holds
a grip on many parts of society. The gap between the richest and the
poor is immense, former party officials having snapped up pieces of
industry as a rough and tumble version of capitalism returned.
Authoritarian governance based on centuries of autocratic leadership
continues to dominate the political culture. And the spirit of
volunteerism on which so much good work happens in the West is
virtually unknown. Nurtured by the state for decades, it is many's
view that if tasks and caring are to happen, the state should do it.
In sharp contrast to this legacy stands the heritage of the 1,700 year
old Christian tradition in Armenia. Traveling through villages and
cities, one is rarely out of sight of a stone church, the remains of
a monastery, or intricately carved stone crosses, called "khatchkars"
which mark the landscape and tell the story of faith across centuries.
And, all have ongoing programs to assist "the least of these."
In my faith walk, I regularly encounter followers of Jesus renewing
their churches after the nearly 70 years of "militant atheism" imposed
by communist leaders. Working with, talking to, and observing these
church leaders I reflect on the role of organized religion in the
United States. European settlers brought their expressions of faith to
this land over 400 years ago. Some were puritanical and exclusionary.
Some were proponents of religious freedom. Some were extensions of
European-based church structures.
So in this month when we celebrate our 235th birthday as a nation,
what role will our church traditions play in shaping the century
ahead? Will they serve as guardians of culture as in the case of
Armenia? If so, whose culture? Will they welcome other expressions
of faith or condemn them? And, will the institutional structures
which were built in the 19th and 20th centuries survive into the 21st
century in an era of "flattened" organizations, distributed leadership,
and intense individualism?
Travels in Armenia or elsewhere in the world always place a mirror
before my face as I examine my relationship with God and the
institutions of which I am a part.
From: Baghdasarian
By Gary Payton
The River Journal
http://riverjournal.com/vivvo/lifestyles/faithwalk/2200-garyfaith_armenia_payton_072011.html
July 7 2011
Idaho
on Gary's Faith Walk
As I gaze on the long winter snow receding on Baldy Mountain above
Sandpoint, I am taken back to another mountain and another place just
weeks ago. On that spring day, I looked out across the just waking
city of Yerevan, Armenia upon the snow-covered slopes of Mount Ararat,
the biblical mountain rising across the border in Turkey to 16,854
feet. In the book of Genesis, it is written, "in the seventh month,
on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the
mountains of Ararat." (Genesis 8:4)
Armenia is far distant from our daily consciousness here in the North
Country. Armenia today is a land locked nation of 3 million in the
southern Caucasus, a former republic of the Soviet Union, and the
first nation to adopt Christianity in the year 301. Armenians are an
ancient people who over the millennia have survived the onslaughts of
invasion, conquest, natural disasters, and genocide at the hands of an
imperial power. Their faith sustained them in the most desperate times.
My purpose was twofold: to explore new ways of connection with the
Armenian Apostolic Church, the Armenian Catholic Church, and the
Armenian Evangelical Church and to visit clinics, schools, cultural
centers and farm cooperatives supported by an NGO associated with
the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
In multiple visits over the past decade, I've traveled extensively in
former communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Yet, twenty
years after the breakup of the USSR, the legacy of the era stills holds
a grip on many parts of society. The gap between the richest and the
poor is immense, former party officials having snapped up pieces of
industry as a rough and tumble version of capitalism returned.
Authoritarian governance based on centuries of autocratic leadership
continues to dominate the political culture. And the spirit of
volunteerism on which so much good work happens in the West is
virtually unknown. Nurtured by the state for decades, it is many's
view that if tasks and caring are to happen, the state should do it.
In sharp contrast to this legacy stands the heritage of the 1,700 year
old Christian tradition in Armenia. Traveling through villages and
cities, one is rarely out of sight of a stone church, the remains of
a monastery, or intricately carved stone crosses, called "khatchkars"
which mark the landscape and tell the story of faith across centuries.
And, all have ongoing programs to assist "the least of these."
In my faith walk, I regularly encounter followers of Jesus renewing
their churches after the nearly 70 years of "militant atheism" imposed
by communist leaders. Working with, talking to, and observing these
church leaders I reflect on the role of organized religion in the
United States. European settlers brought their expressions of faith to
this land over 400 years ago. Some were puritanical and exclusionary.
Some were proponents of religious freedom. Some were extensions of
European-based church structures.
So in this month when we celebrate our 235th birthday as a nation,
what role will our church traditions play in shaping the century
ahead? Will they serve as guardians of culture as in the case of
Armenia? If so, whose culture? Will they welcome other expressions
of faith or condemn them? And, will the institutional structures
which were built in the 19th and 20th centuries survive into the 21st
century in an era of "flattened" organizations, distributed leadership,
and intense individualism?
Travels in Armenia or elsewhere in the world always place a mirror
before my face as I examine my relationship with God and the
institutions of which I am a part.
From: Baghdasarian