PRESS RELEASE
Eastern Prelacy of the Armenian Apost. Church of America and Canada
H.E. Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan
Prelate, Easter Prelacy and Canada
138 East 39th Street
New York, NY 10016
Tel: 212-689-7810
Fax: 212-689-7168
Web:
PRELATE IN NEW JERSEY
Last Sunday Archbishop Oshagan presided over the Divine Liturgy at
Sts. Vartanantz Church in Ridgefield, New Jersey. During the Liturgy,
students and
staff of the Sunday School received their first communion of the new
year and the blessings of the Prelate.
After the Divine Liturgy, His Eminence met with members of the
Compatriotic Union of Urfa of New Jersey who presented the Prelate
with a check for $10,000 for the Fund for Syrian Armenian Relief.
Archbishop Oshagan watches as staff and students of the Sunday School
receive Communion.
Archbishop Oshagan and Rev. Fr. Hovnan Bozoian with members of the New
Jersey Compatriotic Union of Urfa, who presented a generous donation
to the Fund for Syrian Armenian Relief.
PLEASE DO NOT FORGET OUR ONGOING RELIEF EFFORTS FOR THE ARMENIAN
COMMUNITY
IN SYRIA WHERE CONDITIONS ARE BECOMING INCREASINGLY MORE DIFFICULT.
THE NEED IS REAL.
THE NEED IS GREAT.
DONATIONS TO THE FUND FOR SYRIAN ARMENIAN RELIEF CAN BE MADE ON LINE.
TO DONATE NOW CLICK HERE () AND
SELECT SYRIAN ARMENIAN RELIEF IN THE MENU.
The Fund for Syrian Armenian Relief is a joint effort of: Armenian
Apostolic Church of America (Eastern Prelacy); Armenian Catholic
Eparchy; Armenian
Evangelical Union of North America; Armenian Relief Society (Eastern
USA, Inc.); Armenian Revolutionary Federation.
Thank you for your help
IN MEMORIAM
Maestro Aram Gharabekian
The acclaimed Armenian conductor, Aram Gharabekian, died on January 11
in Los Angeles. He was 58.
Maestro Gharabekian served as the music director and principal
conductor of the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia from 1997 to
2010. In 2001 the Eastern Prelacy sponsored a concert featuring the
Chamber Orchestra led by Mr. Gharabekian in celebration of the 1700th
anniversary of Christian Armenia. The concert took place on November
10, 2001, at Alice Tully Hall in New
York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The concert,
=80=9CPassion and Light,’ a sold-out performance, received wide
critical acclaim. Mr. Gharabekian was also the founder and artistic
director of the Boston-based SinfoNova Orchestra from 1983 to1991.
We express deepest condolences to his family, colleagues, and friends.
CLERGY CANDIDATES ARRIVE IN ANTELIAS
Two clergy candidates who have been studying in the United States
arrived in Antelias, Lebanon where they will complete their studies
before returning to the United States. The two candidates are Deacon
Diran Der Khosrofian,
from St. Asdvadzadzin Church, Whitinsville, Massachusetts, and Deacon
Harold Nazarian from Sts. Vartanantz Church, Providence, Rhode
Island. Archpriest Fr. Aram Stepanian, chairman of the Prelacy’s
Religious Council,
traveled with the two deacons.
Der Aram and the deacons at the airport prior to departure with family
members who bid them bon voyage.
Der Aram and Deacons Diran and Harold in front of the Cathedral of
St. Gregory the Illuminator in Antelias, Lebanon, with Very
Rev. Fr. Paren Vartanian who is in charge of the special study program
the deacons will follow.
CHRISTMAS IN GLENVIEW
Photo by Tina Tcholakian
Archpriest Fr. Zareh Sahakian officiates during the Blessing of the
Water ceremony at All Saints Church, Glenview, Illinois. The Godfather
is Armen Jerikian, son of Mr. & Mrs. Michael Jerikian.
BIBLE READINGS
Bible readings for Sunday, January 19, First Sunday after Nativity,
are: Isaiah 54:1-13; 1Timothy 1:1-11; John 2:1-11.
On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the
mother of
Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the
wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him,
`They
have no wine.’ And Jesus said to her, `Woman, what concern
is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.’ His mother said
to the servants, `Do whatever he tells you.’ Now standing there were
six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each
holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, `Fill the jars
with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them,
`Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.’ So they took
it. When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did
not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the
water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him,
`Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after
the
guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.’
Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and
revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him. (John 2:1-11)
For a listing of the coming week’s Bible readings click here
().
THE HERMITS: ANTHONY, TRYPHON, BARSAUMA, and ONOUPHRIUS
Tomorrow, Saturday, January 18, the Armenian Church remembers four
early Christians, the Hermits Anthony, Tryphon, Barsauma, and
Onouphrius.
Of the four hermit saints, Anthony is the best known. He lived during
the time of our Lord and he heard the words spoken by Jesus to a
wealthy young man advising, `If you will be perfect, go and sell all
that you have and give it to the poor and come follow me.’ Anthony did
exactly that, lived as a hermit, preached the teachings of Jesus and
encouraged others to follow his example. The place he selected to live
became the site of
the first monastery; that is why he is recognized as the father of
monasticism. Subsequently, many other brotherhoods were established
throughout the
world.
`Blessed among the fathers, Saint Anthony, who surpassed human nature,
intercede before Christ for our souls. You spent many days without
food, enduring voluntarily all the needs of the flesh; intercede
before Christ
for our souls. By your constant remembrance of us before Christ, be
the helper of those who celebrate your memory that we also may receive
praise.’
(Canon to Saint Anthony from the Liturgical Canons of the Armenian
Church)
LITURGICAL CALENDAR POSTER
The 2014 color poster of the Liturgical Calendar of the Armenian
Apostolic
Church is now available at the Prelacy. At a glance, one can see the
cycle
of feasts and fasts and seasons of the Armenian Church year, which
begins on January 6, 2014.
An added feature this year is a list of `Basic Facts’ about the
Armenian Church’s liturgical year. This 27×36 inch poster belongs in
every Sunday school classroom.
To order, please contact the Prelacy at 212-689-7810 or at
[email protected]. The cost of the poster is $5.00 plus
shipping and handling.
Victoria `Tori’ Kulungian, left, and Nairi Hovsepian in Armenia
overlooking Yerevan where they spent four weeks working on various
projects.
NORTH ANDOVER SUNDAY SCHOOL FRIENDS
TAKE THEIR MISSION TO ARMENIA
Nairi Hovsepian and Victoria (Tori) Kulungian attended Sunday School
at St. Gregory Church in North Andover, Massachusetts, where they
received their
religious education, as well as the history of their ancestors. When
they had the opportunity to visit Armenia last summer, they eagerly
accepted.
During their 20-day trip, they worked at a soup kitchen, helped build
a home, taught English classes and art, just to mention a few of the
challenges
that brought them closer to their roots, including learning the
language.
To read the story by journalist Tom Vartabedian click here
().
SAVE THE DATES FOR NRA
The 2014 National Representative Assembly (NRA), along with the Clergy
Conference, and the Conference of the National Association of Ladies
Guilds (NALG), will take place May 13-17, hosted by St. Sarkis Church,
Dearborn, Michigan. Watch for details.
THIS WEEK IN ARMENIAN HISTORY
(Prepared by the Armenian National Education Committee[ANEC])
Birth of Dikran Khan Kelekian
(January 19, 1868)
The Assyrian reliefs of Genii and King Assurnasirpal, as well as the
winged bull and lion from the ninth-century B.C. Palace of
Assurnasirpal, which are today at the Metropolitan Museum in New York,
were originally acquired in 1932 by John D. Rockefeller. The seller
was a notable collector and dealer of Islamic art, Dikran Kelekian,
who by that time was working together with his son, Charles
(1900-1982). The representation of the head of Tutankhamun, seen in
the museum’s collection and on the cover of the catalogue of the
Egyptian Wing, was acquired from the Kelekians in the late 1940s.
Dikran Kelekian was born in Caesarea (Kayseri) to a family originally
from
Persia. He was the son of an Armenian banker. He studied ancient Near
Eastern history at Robert College (now Bogazici University) in
Constantinople (now Istanbul) and continued his education in Paris. He
set himself up, with
his brother Kevork, in the antiquities business in Constantinople at
the age of 24 and soon acquired a reputation as a knowledgeable
collector and dealer specializing in Islamic art, particularly
pottery. He came to the United States in 1893 as a commissioner for
the Persian Pavilion at the Chicago
World’s Fair. He soon established shops in New York (Le Musée
de Bosphore), Paris, London, and Cairo, where he and his brother
flourished as vendors, selling works of art and antiquities.
In 1902 the Shah of Persia elevated Kelekian to the title of khan and
appointed him to serve as the Persian consul in New York. His gallery
became the headquarters of the consulate. He served as a member of the
jury for the Paris World’s Fair of 1900, and was the general commissar
of the Persian Empire at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition de Saint
Louis, also known as St. Louis World’s Fair (1904), mounting a large
display of his
wares, accompanied with an illustrated catalogue. He eventually became
an American citizen. His collections were featured in a number of
international exhibitions in Paris, Munich, London, and New York over
the decades. He is the author of Potteries of Persia, Being a Brief
History of the Arts of Ceramics in the Near East (1909).
Kelekian was a member of the Central Board of Directors of the
Armenian General Benevolent Union and in 1909 he funded an AGBU
orphanage bearing his name in Deort Yol (Cilicia) for Armenian
refugees fleeing the Adana massacres.
Regarded as the `dean of antiquities’ in the United States, he acted
as an adviser to great American collectors, including Henry Walters,
George Blumenthal, and Louisine and Henry Havemeyer. Art critic Roger
Fry described him as having an “omnivorous acquisitiveness.” In his
book The Kelekian Collection of Persian and Analogous Potteries,
1885-1910 (1910), he stated his aesthetic views. For him, Persian art
was a precursor of avant-garde art, which he defended with
passion. Along with Coptic, Paleo-Christian, or Persian art, his
gallery promoted the works of Matisse, Rouault, Derain, and Picasso in
the United States.
Kelekian’s Cairo gallery served as a base for purchasing Egyptian
antiquities, including Late Antique, commonly referred to as Coptic,
textiles. In 1943 Milton Avery painted Kelekian in his gallery, posed
before a Coptic textile. The `School of Paris’ rendered homage to him
with an exhibition of twenty-one portraits at the Gallery Durand Ruel
(1944).
At age 83, Kelekian died in January 1951, when he fell from the
twenty-first floor of the St. Moritz hotel in New York. His son first
took the succession, and then the business was maintained by his
granddaughter Nanette until 1990. Sometime in the early twentieth
century, Kelekian had assembled an
album of approximately one thousand textile fragments, which she
donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2002.
Previous entries in `This Week in Armenian History’ are on
the Prelacy’s web site ().
THE ARMENIAN LANGUAGE CORNER
Don’t Sit on a File!
You may have a long sofa without a back, probably with various
cushions against the wall. The English language calls that a divan
(the same as French
and Spanish), and the word comes from Turkish divan. But, indeed, the
nomadic Turks had come into the Near East and did not bring the sofa
with them:
they simply adopted it, as they did with many other things, from the
Arabs
(diwan), who, in their turn, had borrowed it from the Persians. The
Armenian dialects also have the word Õ¿Õ«Ö=82Õ¡Õ¶ (divan), borrowed
from Turkish, which is used in colloquial language.
Strangely enough, the two ultimate source words for these words, and
for many others spread from the Middle East to the Atlantic Ocean, are
dÄ`vÄ=81n (`archive,’ in Middle Persian) and divan (`tribunal, hall,
court, council chamber, collection of poems,’ in Persian). How did an
archive or a tribunal become a cushioned seat? The explanation is
quite simple: those seats are found along the wall in Middle Eastern
council chambers.
The word divan `Oriental council of state’ also entered the English
language in the 1580s, but it is not the kind of word that you use on
a daily basis. Instead, its counterpart Õ¤Õ«Ö=82Õ¡Õ¶
(tivan, in Western Armenian pronunciation) is of quite common use,
although not with that same meaning.
The word entered Classical Armenian from Persian already in the fifth
century. Historians Koriun and Movses Khorenatsi used Õ¤Õ«Ö=82Õ¡Õ¶
with the meaning of `school’ or `library.’ Today, in Modern Armenian,
the word is used with the meanings of =80=9Carchive’ and `office.’
In its first meaning, it’s synonymous with Õ¡Ö=80Õ-Õ«Ö=82/arkhiv, a
borrowing from German via Russian.
In the second, you may hear it used when you talk about the tivan of
an organization, meaning the distribution of the offices in its
executive board.
It also designates the office of president and secretary of an
assembly.
The word is particularly used in compound terms, such as:
Ô´Õ«Ö=82Õ¡Õ¶Õ¡Õ£Õ§Õ¿ (tivanaked) =80=9Cdiplomat,’ hence
Õ¤Õ«Ö=82Õ¡Õ¶Õ¡Õ£Õ«Õ¿Õ¸Ö=82Õ©Õ«Ö=82Õ¶ (tivanakidootyoon) `diplomacy’
Ô´Õ«Ö=82Õ¡Õ¶Õ¡ÕºÕ¥Õ¿ (tivanabed) =80=9Chead of office / head of
archive’
Ô´Õ«Ö=82Õ¡Õ¶Õ¡Õ¯Õ¡Õ¬ (tivanagal) =80=9Cbureaucrat’
As you see, seats and archives are related in Armenian. It is only a
matter of being careful and avoid sitting. . . on a file.
Previous entries in `The Armenian Language Corner’ are on the
Prelacy’s web site ().
HRANT DINK ANNIVERSARY
This Sunday, January 19, marks the 7th anniversary of the
assassination of
Hrant Dink, the out-spoken and brave editor of the influential Turkish
Armenian newspaper, Agos, the first newspaper in Turkey to be
published in Turkish and Armenian.
Dink was one of Turkey’s most prominent Armenian voices and, despite
threats on his life, he refused to remain silent. He always said his
aim
was to improve the difficult relationship between Turks and
Armenians. He focused on issues of free speech, minority rights, civic
rights, injustice,
and issues pertaining to the Armenian community in Turkey. In his
public speeches he never refrained from using the word genocide when
talking about the Armenian Genocide.
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. DAY
This Monday, January 20, is a federal holiday in the United States
honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dr. King was born on January 15, 1929. He attended public schools in
Georgia and graduated from high school at age 15. He received the
B.A. degree from Morehouse College in Atlanta. After three years of
theological study at Crozser Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, he
received the B.D. degree and continued graduate studies at Boston
University where he successfully completed his doctoral studies in
1955. Two years later he was elected president of the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed
to provide new leadership for the civil rights movement. King took the
ideals of this organization from Christianity and its operation al
techniques from Gandhi. From 1957 to 1968 he traveled more than six
million miles and delivered more than 2,500 speeches, appearing
wherever there was injustice,
believing that injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere. In 1964, at
age
35, he received the Nobel Peace Prize. Four years later, on April 4,
1968,
he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.
May the memory of the righteous be forever blessed and honored.
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
January 31-Memorial Program dedicated to Sos Sargsyan, Armenian actor,
playwright, people’s artist, and political activist, organized
by Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Society of New York,
featuring Karine Kocharyan, Voice of Armenians TVNY, at the Armenian
Center, 69-23 47th Street, Woodside, New York. Suggested donation:
$7.00. For information: 718-565-8397.
February 1-Valentine’s Day Dinner Dance, St. Sarkis Church,
Douglaston, New York.
February 2-St. Sarkis Men’s Club, Dearborn, Michigan, presents Super
Bowl Party, at Lillian Arakelian Hall.
February 9-St. Sarkis Church, Dearborn, Michigan, Book Presentation by
Deacon Shant Kazanjian following the Divine Liturgy at Lillian
Arakelian Hall.
February 9-Sts. Vartanantz Church, Ridgefield, New Jersey, Bishop
Anoushavan will celebrate the Divine Liturgy and deliver the
sermon. Following the services, His Grace will make a presentation
commemorating the 50th
anniversary of the passing of Catholicos Zareh I, and the 30th
anniversary
of the passing of Catholicos Khoren I.
February 24-26-Annual Clergy Ghevontiantz Gathering hosted by Holy
Cross Church, 255 Spring Avenue, Troy, New York.
March 1-St. Sarkis Sunday School, Dearborn, Michigan, Poon Paregentan
Costume Party for everyone, at Lillian Arakelian Hall.
March 26-St. Sarkis Ladies Guild, Dearborn, Michigan, Mid-Lenten
Luncheon following the Lenten morning service, Lillian Arakelian Hall.
March 28-Musical Armenia Concert presented by Eastern Prelacy and
Prelacy Ladies Guild, at Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall, 8 pm.
May 13-17-Clergy Conference and National Representative Assembly, and
Annual Conference of the National Association of Ladies’ Guilds
(NALG) of the Eastern Prelacy, hosted by St. Sarkis Church, Dearborn,
Michigan.
June 1-Ladies Guild Annual Brunch, St. Sarkis Church, Douglaston, New
York.
June 1-St. Sarkis Church, Dearborn, Michigan, Toronto Children’s Choir
concert in the church sanctuary.
Web pages of the parishes can be accessed through the Prelacy’s web
site.
To ensure the timely arrival of Crossroads in your electronic mailbox,
add [email protected] to your address book
Items in Crossroads can be reproduced without permission. Please
credit Crossroads as the source.
Parishes of the Eastern Prelacy are invited to send information about
their major events to be included in the calendar. Send to:
[email protected]