Aram I highlights youth’s role in Armenian Church and communities

YEREVAN, 1 JUNE, ARMENPRESS: Young members of Boston’s Armenian community met Saturday morning with a top leader of their orthodox church who was here on a visit from Lebanon as part of four days of events, Armenpress reports, citing the Boston Globe website.

Catholicos Aram I spoke to a group of about 100 people, ranging from high school students to young professionals, about the need to “bring new vitality” to the church. The Catholicos, the title used by two top leaders of the church, is in Boston as part of a tour that has taken him to Armenian congregations across the eastern half of the United States.

“In our church and community as well, we must take youth very seriously,” said Aram I, who wore a simple black robe and a gold chain as he addressed the crowd at a breakfast event at the Westin Hotel in Waltham. “This is, in fact, one of my top priorities.”

In April, Boston’s large Armenian communitymarked the 100th anniversaryof the beginning of the Armenian genocide, in which 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks during World War I. The Orthodox Church alsocanonized the genocide victims, adding spiritual significance to the occasion.

Last week, Aram I and other Armenian community members gathered for events commemorating Armenia’s 1918 independence that included appearances by former governor Deval Patrick and John Evans, the former US ambassador to Armenia. The Catholicos will also celebrate a Mass at St. Stephen’s Armenian Apostolic Church in Watertown on Sunday that is expected to draw Armenian Christians from around New England.

“It kind of gives a focus for us,” the Rev. Archpriest Antranig Baljian, who leads the Watertown congregation, said of Aram I’s visit. “Armenians tend to live in the past, and His Holiness is trying to give us the message ... that what ties us is not only in the past, but also in the future as well.”

At Saturday’s question-and-answer session, young people spoke and submitted questions for the Catholicos on index cards. Michael Markarian of Cranston, R.I., said his anger at the genocide commemoration gave way to gratitude when he recalled how his great-grandfather survived the killings. He asked other young people to have faith and be open to opportunities for holiness.

Audience members posed questions about several topics, including interfaith dialogues with Muslims and other Christian sects and how members of the Armenian Diaspora could preserve their ethnic identity. When the moderator read a question about female altar servers and deacons, who are rare in the Orthodox Church, the audience cheered when Aram I said, “The place of women is not the kitchen.”

Nairi Krafian, 19, a Tufts student, said she appreciated how the Catholicos gave serious answers to the young people. Both Krafian and Samuel Chakmakjian, 19, a student at Brandeis University, said they were happy to hear Aram I’s advice on remaining true to their roots in a diverse society.

“As Middle Eastern Christians in America, we kind of fall into this in-between space,” Chakmakjian said.