RESPONSE TO E. AZADIAN’S ‘ANARCHY IN THE HIERARCHY’
17 September 2013
I have read Mr. Azadian’s above inappropriately titled article. The
author has injected poisonous nonsense into the debate about the
governance of the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church by circumventing
all the serious issues and resorting to fatally-flawed cliches. In
a stampede to retrieve the situation, Mr. Azadian has pushed all the
wrong and worn out arguments – the Genocide, ‘Cold War’ sentiments,
and the Antelias-Etchmiadzin crisis.
The reason why the Armenian people have raised their voices is because
the only unifying institution based on moral foundations is being
governed by the Catholicos, and not by the Episcopal Synod according
to the long held canons of the church. The hierarchy of the Church
is not the soul of the Armenian people. The soul of the Armenian
nation is its Church, Holy, Apostolic and Orthodox, upon which the
hierarchies of Holy Etchmiadzin, Cilicia/Antelias, Jerusalem and
Constantinople/Istanbul were founded on to protect and preserve
“without blemish in spiritual love and one accord”.
The Patriarchate of Jerusalem and its Brotherhood have been a principal
source of our faith for nearly 1,500 years. Over the centuries,
countless Armenians have made pilgrimages to the Holy City, prayed
and renewed their Christian vows on the shrine of St James, Brother of
Our Lord. During the most critical times in the history of our Church
the noble clergy (Patriarchs Yeghishe Turian, Torkom Koushagian,
Guregh Israelian) have kept the flame of St. Gregory’s lantern alight.
When the late locum tenens of the Catholicosate of Etchmiadzin, the
Patriarch of Jerusalem Torkom Manoogian passed away, the Catholicos
did not attend his funeral. Failure to attend was disrespectful to the
members of the Jerusalem Brotherhood, who hold high and responsible
positions in the west. He also failed to attend the enthronement of
Nourhan Manougian the present Patriarch of Jerusalem. The latter needs
the visible support of Holy Etchmiadzin. His absence also diminished
the status of the Patriarchate in the eyes of the hostile Israeli
government.
His Grace Archbishop Mesrop Moutafian, Patriarch of Constantinople
succumbed to his present state due to his spending several years in
prison for his stance against the Turkish government, and not because
of being a “political tool in the hands of” that government as Azadian
alleges. Likewise, the antagonism of the Israeli government toward
the Patriarch of Jerusalem arises from the courageous stance he has
taken on the question of the Armenian Genocide.
There is no tradition of a newly- elected Patriarch of Jerusalem making
a pilgrimage to Holy Etchmiadzin to renew his vows at the throne of
St Gregory, as Mr. Azadian suggests. The Patriarch takes and renews
his vows at the shrine of the Apostle St. James, Brother of Our Lord.
No serious observer believes that the survival of an individual
is much more important than the integrity of our Church, the oldest
institution of the Armenian nation. The cavalier approach of Karekin II
is unraveling and the conspiracy theories expounded by Mr. Azadian to
defend the Catholicos are disingenuous. There is obvious cronyism on
the part of Mr. Azadian, a lifelong beneficiary of the organization
he represents who defends his patron and ally rather than heed the
cry of the people, who for the first time, after 75 years, have come
together in defense of their Mother Church.
Political conformity has for long been the cause of ill-health for the
Armenian Church. Even before the Russian Revolution, the Church and
the State in Armenia existed in a sort of unified harmony, which was
not always pleasing to the church. After the Revolution, the Church
fell silent. During the time of repression and extreme persecution
nobody expressed political views. To start to think politically,
and to speak of politics from within the Church, will require a long
and deep period of learning. The Church cannot belong to one party
or another. It must be the voice of conscience, permeated with the
light of God. Ideally, the Church must be in a position to speak for
every party, for every point of view, to say, ‘this is worthy of Man
and God, and this is not worthy of Man and God’.
It is not the Catholicos who imparts prestige and authority to the
Catholicosate. But the Catholicosate, with its 1,700 years of heritage
and 131 Catholicoi, whose witness has been tested by sweat and blood
that imparts authority and prestige to the Holy See. It is the sacred
oath of every new Catholicos to uphold and enrich that heritage.
Rev. Dr. V. Nerses Nersessian, London UK, 17 September 2013
[email protected]
From: A. Papazian
http://www.keghart.com/Rev-Nersessian-Response