PLEASANT HILL RAMBLINGS: PLEASANT HILL HEARS ABOUT ARMENIAN CULTURE
Crossville Chronicle
Aug 30 2013
By Jean Clark Chronicle contributor The Crossville Chronicle Fri Aug
30, 2013, 02:47 PM CDT
CROSSVILLE – Many of a certain age were admonished as children to
“clean our plates because of the starving Armenians who had no food.”
Most knew nothing about the Armenians, starving or otherwise, until
they were much older.
Last month, an interim pastor, Nayiri Karjian, who is of Armenian
descent, came to serve the Pleasant Hill Community Church, UCC,
until a new senior minister is called. Bruce Schoup, a member of
the Community Church, is serving as a missionary teacher/chaplain at
Haigazian University in Beirut, Lebanon, which had been established by
the joint endeavors of the Armenian Missionary Association of America
and the Union of the Armenian Evangelical Churches in the Near East.
As part of her faith journey, Pastor Karjian had attended Haigazian
before pursuing her divinity education in the United States. Haigazian
University is home campus to students from 20 countries of diverse
ethnic and religious backgrounds.
Schoup is the director of spiritual life for more than 900 students
who are primarily Christian, but do include an increasing number of
Muslims. He described his experiences this past year in front of a
background slideshow depicting student activities.
As the university is primarily a commuter school, the students are
involved in their own churches on the weekends. Campus worship is an
extra layer of spirituality. A Wednesday chapel service is student
led with a wide variety of worship styles. There might be a praise
band, a biblical drama,or discussion of books and ideas. They have
a deeper religious connection than the average American of the same
age. There is a belief in God and a respect for religion that seems
broader than in the U.S.
The classes are taught in English and most of the students are
multi-lingual. Business is the number one major, followed by
psychology, education and theology. There are five Armenian churches
in Lebanon, and they all have schools, four as colleges. Lebanon’s
biggest export is considered its educated workers.
There has been a large influx of Syrian Armenians because of the
ongoing violence in that country. Armenians are known for taking care
of each other, and there is financial aid available for these young
people whose families often have to leave everything behind. Part
of Schoup’s responsibility is interviewing those students seeking
financial aid and helping in that decision. There are obvious tent
villages and the less obvious – living with family and friends in
Beirut. The zone of what is perceived as “safe” in Lebanon has shrunk.
Schoup has to develop two and three plans for each activity with his
students. This is a part of the world where much can quickly change.
The longer he is there, the more he identifies and learns about
some of the places with interesting Christian connections, many of
which are in those areas that are perceived as unsafe. They also
are places not commonly visited by the Lebanese. Lebanon continues
to be overwhelmed with more than its share of problems: political,
social and economic. The military is respected but has been kept weak
by its neighbors. Lebanon has not completely rebuilt since its own
civil war and the 2006 war with Israel.
Near the end of his program, Schoup invited Karjian to add her
observations to his remarks. She affirmed his comments and told a
little of her family’s background. Her father was born in Turkey,
moving to Syria as a young boy. Her mother’s family had been refugees
in Syria during the enforced deportation of Armenians from Turkey
almost 100 years ago.
Karjian is an Armenian Christian born and raised in Aleppo, Syria. Her
call to ministry and the war in Lebanon brought her to the United
States in 1982. She is a graduate of Lancaster Seminary in Pennsylvania
and has served eight different congregations in six states.
Historically, most Armenians were Eastern Orthodox Catholics. The
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM),
composed of Presbyterian and Congregational mission-minded people,
played a decisive role in the rise of the Armenian Evangelical
Church. In 1819, the missionaries found that Jews and Muslims were
resistant to Protestant evangelizing so they turned their attention
to the already Christian Armenians. In 1870, the two denominations
that supported the American Board divided the supervision of the
mission field. The Congregationalists were to be in charge of the
Protestants in Turkey and the Balkan countries, and the Presbyterians
were to assume responsibility for Arabic-speaking countries and
Iran. Hence the connection with the United Church of Christ (UCC),
which was formed from the Congregational, Christian, Evangelical and
Reformed Denominations.
Therefore, Schoup and Karjian are both UCC pastors with this common
link to the Armenian Evangelical Church. Schoup was born in Gaziantep,
Turkey, when his parents served as missionaries there and also formerly
in Syria. They retired to Pleasant Hill.
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