Bishop to pay visit to Toronto
Armenian leader last here in ’01
20,000 in Toronto prepare welcome
Toronto Star
Sep. 29, 2005
CHRISTIAN COTRONEO
STAFF REPORTER
The spiritual leader of Armenians throughout the world is coming to Toronto.
And nowhere was it more evident yesterday than in an unlikely bastion of
Armenian pride wedged between Highway 401 and the strip malls, high-rises
and office buildings that flank Victoria Park Ave.
While a trio of women potted fresh flowers outside St. Mary Armenian
Apostolic Church, another dozen or so busied themselves inside, cleaning and
freshening up the building.
Aram I, chief bishop and supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church,
arrives in Toronto Friday for a six-day visit.
In a room tucked inside the church’s basement, Meghrig Parikian is holding
his excitement in his hands. The priest has prepared a book with a golden
cover to commemorate the visit.
“It’s in Armenian,” he says, opening it. “But you can get an idea with some
of the pictures.”
And so the Lebanese-born Parikian takes his time, lingering over every
picture of the holy man that was once his teacher.
As the pages turn, so does Aram’s life, from a boy on a bicycle in Lebanon,
where Aram and the church’s headquarters are based today, to student, to
leader of the Armenian Orthodox faith.
The later pages tell of a peacemaker – a man standing alongside everyone
from Pope John Paul II and the Archbishop of Canterbury, to world leaders
from France to Ethiopia. The Catholicos of Cilicia, as he is formally
called, serves as moderator of the central and executive committees of the
World Council of Churches, and is renowned for reaching across faiths, a
tireless builder of bridges.
In Armenia, which in the early fourth century became the first nation to
declare Christianity its official religion, there’s still a lot of peace to
be made. Years after breaking loose from the Soviet Union in 1991, the
country has yet to reconcile with its long history of oppression.
During what’s come to be known as the Genocide of 1915, millions of
Armenians were rounded up by the Turkish government, worked to death or
marched into the open-air coffin known as the Syrian Desert. Not long after,
the region fell under Soviet control.
Although the Soviet era has long ended, the people of Armenia face an
uncertain democracy under the heavy-handed regime of President Robert
Kocharian. Allegations of corruption and brutality have dogged his
presidency, spurring about a million people to leave the country, mostly for
Russia, since the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Which brings one burning question to mind. Why visit Toronto – twice, even,
since 2001?
After all, the city’s Armenian community of 20,000 is tiny compared with
some in the U.S.
“Canada is considered one of the most active diasporas around the world,
with its religious activities and achievements,” explains Aris Babikian, a
volunteer at the Armenian Community Centre who is helping co-ordinate the
Catholicos’s visit. “That’s why Canada is always considered an important
stop for any Armenian religious or political leaders.”
Indeed, the community’s little patch in North York, where Aram will lead
services on Sunday, has expanded since the leader’s last visit. Most
notably, there’s a new Orthodox high school across from the church and
community centre.
A tour, Parikian said, will most certainly be in order.
But at the moment, Parikian is just finishing his picture tour of Aram’s
life. Before closing the book, he lingers on an image of his mentor offering
a candid grin to a little boy in his arms.
“He so loves kids,” Parikian says. “And I love this picture so much.”
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