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HAVE NO EXPERIENCE BUT HAVE BENTLEY INSTEAD
HAKOB BADALYAN
Story from Lragir.am News:
http://www.lragir.am/engsrc/comments22283.html
Published: 15:34:21 - 20/06/2011
Commenting on the visit of the Armenian Catholicos to Georgia, the
patriarch of Georgia said our catholicos has no experience and wants
to solve an important issue at once.
It seems that the answer of our church can be simple but smart:
we have no experience but we have a Bentley instead. The Georgians
will not understand it, however. They will think Bentley is a variety
of khachapuri, the Georgian bread with cheese, and our answer will
produce no effect.
But if we reject this answer, we will hardly find another answer. The
point is that the visit of the Catholicos of All Armenians to Georgia
has obviously failed, and not because the Armenian side had not
expected such an aggressive policy from the Georgians.
Perhaps they had expected that Georgia would make recurrent commitments
to the renovation of Armenian churches and a solution of the issue
of status of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Once commitments made,
the spiritual authorities, just like the secular authorities do,
would finish the visit and assess it as highly fruitful.
However, the opposite happened. The Georgians did not try to blur or
cover up the demands of the Armenian side. They accepted these demands
and demanded a status for the Georgian church in Armenia instead.
Judging by the behavior and stupor of the Armenian side, they were
absolutely unready for this demand.
More exactly, here they were unready to link this demand to the
Armenian Apostolic Church in Georgia. Perhaps it did not occur to
them that Georgia would be so inhospitable to the Catholicos of the
neighbor country and set forth such complicated problems, knowing
that the Catholicos is not authorized to handle such issues.
However, Georgia demanded service for service.
In fact, our Catholicos has experience but it depends on the
situation. For instance, when the construction of a residence
is concerned, the experience of the Armenian Apostolic Church
is invaluable. Or, the church has an invaluable experience of
receiving gifts. The press reported the considerable experience of
our high-ranking church official fathers in running businesses. The
other minor experiences are not worthwhile to mention.
However, the problem is much more serious. In addition, it is related
to the state policy, the government-church relation. The point is that
the parties to this relation seem to have allied against the society.
In other words, the church justifies or covers the government in
case of a social initiative and vice versa. The sides do not seem
to have set other global issues before each other except for the
helpless hysteria about the fight against sects when the behavior
of the same government and church itself creates fertile soil for
the sects but they try to fight them through meaningless cliches on
national identity and values.
There is no government-church cooperation on any strategic issue.
Meanwhile, their cooperation on issues which contradict to the
interests of the society occurs on the basis of business and corporate
interests, which is a strategic danger to the state.
The visit of the Catholicos of All Armenians to Georgia was a vivid
illustration that the government-church tandem lacks a strategy. An
almost historical visit to the domain full of important issue ended
in a shameful failure.
Obviously, not only the secular but also the religious elite are
undergoing a crisis of adequacy to state and national problems.
Unfortunately, the crisis of "elites" harms the reputation of
the institutions, which complicates the situation and its further
improvement.
From: A. Papazian
HAKOB BADALYAN
Story from Lragir.am News:
http://www.lragir.am/engsrc/comments22283.html
Published: 15:34:21 - 20/06/2011
Commenting on the visit of the Armenian Catholicos to Georgia, the
patriarch of Georgia said our catholicos has no experience and wants
to solve an important issue at once.
It seems that the answer of our church can be simple but smart:
we have no experience but we have a Bentley instead. The Georgians
will not understand it, however. They will think Bentley is a variety
of khachapuri, the Georgian bread with cheese, and our answer will
produce no effect.
But if we reject this answer, we will hardly find another answer. The
point is that the visit of the Catholicos of All Armenians to Georgia
has obviously failed, and not because the Armenian side had not
expected such an aggressive policy from the Georgians.
Perhaps they had expected that Georgia would make recurrent commitments
to the renovation of Armenian churches and a solution of the issue
of status of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Once commitments made,
the spiritual authorities, just like the secular authorities do,
would finish the visit and assess it as highly fruitful.
However, the opposite happened. The Georgians did not try to blur or
cover up the demands of the Armenian side. They accepted these demands
and demanded a status for the Georgian church in Armenia instead.
Judging by the behavior and stupor of the Armenian side, they were
absolutely unready for this demand.
More exactly, here they were unready to link this demand to the
Armenian Apostolic Church in Georgia. Perhaps it did not occur to
them that Georgia would be so inhospitable to the Catholicos of the
neighbor country and set forth such complicated problems, knowing
that the Catholicos is not authorized to handle such issues.
However, Georgia demanded service for service.
In fact, our Catholicos has experience but it depends on the
situation. For instance, when the construction of a residence
is concerned, the experience of the Armenian Apostolic Church
is invaluable. Or, the church has an invaluable experience of
receiving gifts. The press reported the considerable experience of
our high-ranking church official fathers in running businesses. The
other minor experiences are not worthwhile to mention.
However, the problem is much more serious. In addition, it is related
to the state policy, the government-church relation. The point is that
the parties to this relation seem to have allied against the society.
In other words, the church justifies or covers the government in
case of a social initiative and vice versa. The sides do not seem
to have set other global issues before each other except for the
helpless hysteria about the fight against sects when the behavior
of the same government and church itself creates fertile soil for
the sects but they try to fight them through meaningless cliches on
national identity and values.
There is no government-church cooperation on any strategic issue.
Meanwhile, their cooperation on issues which contradict to the
interests of the society occurs on the basis of business and corporate
interests, which is a strategic danger to the state.
The visit of the Catholicos of All Armenians to Georgia was a vivid
illustration that the government-church tandem lacks a strategy. An
almost historical visit to the domain full of important issue ended
in a shameful failure.
Obviously, not only the secular but also the religious elite are
undergoing a crisis of adequacy to state and national problems.
Unfortunately, the crisis of "elites" harms the reputation of
the institutions, which complicates the situation and its further
improvement.
From: A. Papazian