PRESS RELEASE
Eastern Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America
138 East 39th Street
New York, NY 10016
Tel: 212-689-7810
Fax: 212-689-7168
e-mail: [email protected]
Website:
Contact: Iris Papazian
May 4, 2005
AREC SPONSORS SEMINAR FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS
New York, NY – Sixteen Sunday School teachers and directors from
four New England parishes gathered at St. Stephen Armenian Church,
Watertown, MA, on Saturday, April 9, 2005, for a daylong seminar on the
Bible and the Sacraments of Christian Initiation-Baptism, Chrismation
and Eucharist. Sponsored by the Armenian Religious Education Council
(AREC), the four-hour seminar, led by Deacon Shant Kazanjian, director
of AREC, focused on the service of the Word.
Dn. Shant walked the participants through the services, highlighting
the ritual movements, prayers and the readings of the scriptures. While
the service of the sacrament of Baptism-Chrismation contains several
fixed biblical readings, the scriptural readings for Soorp Badarak
(as for every day) are prescribed by the lectionary of the Armenian
Apostolic Church. “The way the Church uses the scriptures in her
services provides an important lens through which we can see how the
Armenian Church understands a particular passage,” said Deacon Shant.
Dn. Shant expounded consecutively on the following scriptural
readings of the service of Baptism-Chrismation, underscoring their
particular function: Psalm 51, Matthew 28: 16-20, Psalm 118, Psalm
29:3-4, Ezekiel 36:25-28, Galatians 3:24-29, John 3:1-8 Romans 6:3-11,
Matthew 3:13-17. In addition, he pointed out some of the key scriptural
concepts and metaphors incorporated in our hymns and prayers.
As for his session on Badarak, Dn. Shant began with Jesus’ words at
the Last Supper – “Take, eat; this is my Body. Take, drink; this is my
blood.” These words “sum up the whole teaching ministry and mission of
Jesus Christ as presented to us in the Gospels,” said Dn. Shant. He
went on to discuss how Soorp Badarak in its structure and content is
scriptural through and through. Hence, teaching the scripture remains
absolutely indispensable to understanding Badarak.”
In addition to the teachers from, St. Stephen (Watertown, MA),
St. Gregory (Indian Orchard, MA), St. Gregory Church (N. Andover,
MA), Sts. Vartanantz (Providence, RI), also present were Der Antranig
Baljian, pastor of St. Stephen’s Church and Dn. Hagop Khatchadourian
from Rhode Island, Prelacy Executive Council liaison to AREC.
The participants enjoyed a sumptuous lunch graciously provided by
the host community.
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