From 3rd to 13th June, H.G. Levon Zekiyan, President of the Padus-Araxes Cultural Association and
Director of the Summer Intensive Course of Armenian Language and Culture, paid a short visit to the USA.
He joined St. Nersess Armenian Seminary in Armonk, New York, where he participated in a scholarly conference on Evagrius Ponticus, titled ‘Sitting as a Stranger: Evagrius in the Desert and Beyond’, which took place from 4 to 6 June 2026. Evagrius is a Church Father whose influence on Armenian theology and spirituality has not yet been studied in depth. This high-level conference, which opened with a general Christian perspective stretching from East to West, was an important step in this direction.
On 10 June, Zekiyan Srpazan travelled to Washington, D.C., where he met the local Armenian community at St Mary’s Armenian Apostolic Church on the evening of 11 June. He was welcomed by the community’s spiritual pastor, Rev. Fr. Hovsep Karapetyan, who also took part in the Evagrius symposium. Levon Srpazan delivered a lecture on the urgent need to keep the Western Armenian language and culture alive, the difficulties involved, and how to overcome them. A notable number of community members attended the lecture, as did a large group of young people who were taking part in an internship programme in Washington, D.C., organised by Dr Ruben Adalian. Fr Levon also provided detailed information about the Summer Intensive Course of Armenian Language and Culture in Venice, organised by the Padus-Araxes Association, encouraged the audience to support it and urged young people to attend.
On 12 June, the Bodurian family (Dr Edward and Ellen Bodurian) offered a dinner in honour of the Srpazan. During the dinner, donations were made to the Venice Summer Intensive Course.
On Saturday, 13 June, H.G. Levon Zekiyan left Washington, D.C, for Venice.
PADUS-ARAXES CULTURAL ASSOCIATION SECRETARIAT
Venezia, 20 June 2026
Armenian version attached