Tweet
ARMENIAN CHURCH TO FORM ITS FIRST UTAH PARISH
09:32 01.02.2013
Armenia adopted Christianity as its national religion in A.D. 301,
but it has taken another 17 centuries for that national church to
come to the Beehive State.
This weekend, Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, head of the Western Diocese
of the Armenian Apostolic Church of North America, will be in Utah
to celebrate the Divine Liturgy with the community, to help launch
its first parish here and to announce the appointment of a permanent
priest for the parish, the Salt Lakke Tribune reports.
"Once a church has a shepherd, it can become a family," Derderian said
in a phone interview from his office in Southern California. "It can
become a place where their identity is well-maintained and where they
can become connected to their cultural roots and Christian faith."
By tradition, St. Gregory, the country's first Christian evangelist,
"saw Christ in a vision, who indicated to him where to build his
church, the first Armenian Church," according to the church's website.
But the country was surrounded by Muslim nations, which often attacked
it and persecuted its believers, the history says. Armenians were
massacred in the Ottoman Empire, the site adds, and also suffered
under the Russians starting in 1893 and later in the Soviet Union
until the 1980s.
The Armenian Apostolic Church came to American shores with immigrants
in 1898. About 2â~@~I½ decades later, it was split into Eastern
and Western branches, the latter encompassing everything west of
the Mississippi. Utah will become the newest parish in the Western
Diocese's 50 established churches.
In 1996, Armenians in the state tried to create a parish, but "it
fizzled out," says Miriam McFadden, who has been named the treasurer
of Utah's newly created parish board. "Some people moved and others
had health problems."
Now there are more than 2,000 Armenians living in Utah, and Derderian
is eager to establish the church here. The archbishop has visited
the community three times since an organizing meeting took place here
last March, attracting about 80 people.
Before this, Armenian Christians would have to pay to fly in a
priest for baptisms, weddings and funerals for family members so the
community would "piggyback" onto those services, McFadden says. Now,
with Derderian's appointment of a permanent priest, the community
can begin to thrive.
"To us, the church is more about our identity than the religion," she
says. "It has a lot of pomp and ceremony, absolutely beautiful music
[chanting of the Psalms] and lovely rituals. There's a familiarity
to it for us."
http://www.armradio.am/en/2013/02/01/armenian-church-to-form-its-first-utah-parish/
09:32 01.02.2013
Armenia adopted Christianity as its national religion in A.D. 301,
but it has taken another 17 centuries for that national church to
come to the Beehive State.
This weekend, Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, head of the Western Diocese
of the Armenian Apostolic Church of North America, will be in Utah
to celebrate the Divine Liturgy with the community, to help launch
its first parish here and to announce the appointment of a permanent
priest for the parish, the Salt Lakke Tribune reports.
"Once a church has a shepherd, it can become a family," Derderian said
in a phone interview from his office in Southern California. "It can
become a place where their identity is well-maintained and where they
can become connected to their cultural roots and Christian faith."
By tradition, St. Gregory, the country's first Christian evangelist,
"saw Christ in a vision, who indicated to him where to build his
church, the first Armenian Church," according to the church's website.
But the country was surrounded by Muslim nations, which often attacked
it and persecuted its believers, the history says. Armenians were
massacred in the Ottoman Empire, the site adds, and also suffered
under the Russians starting in 1893 and later in the Soviet Union
until the 1980s.
The Armenian Apostolic Church came to American shores with immigrants
in 1898. About 2â~@~I½ decades later, it was split into Eastern
and Western branches, the latter encompassing everything west of
the Mississippi. Utah will become the newest parish in the Western
Diocese's 50 established churches.
In 1996, Armenians in the state tried to create a parish, but "it
fizzled out," says Miriam McFadden, who has been named the treasurer
of Utah's newly created parish board. "Some people moved and others
had health problems."
Now there are more than 2,000 Armenians living in Utah, and Derderian
is eager to establish the church here. The archbishop has visited
the community three times since an organizing meeting took place here
last March, attracting about 80 people.
Before this, Armenian Christians would have to pay to fly in a
priest for baptisms, weddings and funerals for family members so the
community would "piggyback" onto those services, McFadden says. Now,
with Derderian's appointment of a permanent priest, the community
can begin to thrive.
"To us, the church is more about our identity than the religion," she
says. "It has a lot of pomp and ceremony, absolutely beautiful music
[chanting of the Psalms] and lovely rituals. There's a familiarity
to it for us."
http://www.armradio.am/en/2013/02/01/armenian-church-to-form-its-first-utah-parish/