Newburyport News, MA

Church directory

Saturday, April 02, 2005

ARMENIAN

St. Gregory the Illuminator Armenian Church, Crescent Place, Haverhill,
(978) 372-9227. Sunday worship service at 10 a.m.; Sunday School, 10 a.m.

Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia

On this day

03apr05

1993 – Armenian forces seize Kelbajar in Azerbaijan, completing a land link
to the Armenian enclave Nagorno-Karabach.

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan

April 3, 2005

PRESIDENT ILHAM ALIYEV RECEIVES OSCE CHAIRMAN-IN-OFFICE DIMITRIJ RUPEL AND
ACCOMPANYING DELEGATION

[April 02, 2005, 19:57:57]

President of the Azerbaijan Republic Ilham Aliyev met in private with OSCE
Chairman-In-Office, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia Dimitrij Rupel
on April 2. Later, the Head of State received the accompanying delegation.

The President noted that Azerbaijan is successfully implementing reforms in
political, economic and other spheres, and taking active part in the global
projects being realized in the region. He pointed out that very good
opportunities had been created for the members of the delegation to
familiarize closer with the processes taking place in Azerbaijan.

Dwelling on the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, the
Azerbaijani leader stressed the problem was the greatest obstacle to
development, stability and security in the region. He repeated that the
Azerbaijan’s stance on this conflict was based only on such principles of
the international law as those of territorial integrity and inviolability of
borders. In this connection, President Ilham Aliyev mentioned the obvious
intensification of the related activities of the OSCE Minsk. He expressed
hope this visit would help the delegation to get more detailed picture of
the situation in the region.

OSCE Chairman-In-Office, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia Dimitrij
Rupel for his part expressed satisfaction with the exchange of views he had
had with President Ilham Aliyev.

He appreciated the prospects of the OSCE-supported work done in Azerbaijan,
and welcomed the President Ilham Aliyev’s recent decree on pardoning 114
prisoners.

The guest also expressed deep satisfaction with the Azerbaijani leader’s
views on the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, processes of
democratization taking place in the country including elections, regional
development etc. he had expressed during their conversation.

A number of other issues of mutual interests were touched on during the
meeting.

Chicago Tribune

The pope and the end of European communism

By Tom Hundley
Tribune staff reporter
Published April 2, 2005

WARSAW — Poland in the late 1970s was a grim and isolated place. The
economy was a shambles. The shelves of shops were empty, and consumers
waited in long lines. The Communist regime went almost unchallenged.

But spirits rose in October 1979, when Karol Wojtyla, archbishop of Krakow,
was elected pope. Poles suddenly had a link to the outside world – Wojtyla
would be their voice. And Wojtyla was determined to help his homeland.

When the Vatican first proposed a visit in early 1979, Leonid Brezhnev, the
Soviet leader, recommended that the pope’s trip should be postponed “due to
illness.” A homecoming for a Polish pope would only bring trouble, he
warned.

The Polish government believed it could stage-manage a harmless religious
event. But the Communists had little inkling of the power wielded by Pope
John Paul II.

Some 300,000 Poles filled Warsaw’s vast Victory Square for the first papal
mass on June 2, 1979. Nearly a million more jammed the surrounding streets.

“There can be no just Europe without the independence of Poland marked on
its map,” the pope told them.

The response swelled like a vast tidal wave: “We want God, we want God.”

Over the course of the nine-day pilgrimage, the pope altered the
psychological landscape of his homeland, instilling a sense of dignity and
courage. His theme, repeated over and over at every stop, was
solidarnosz – the solidarity of the Polish people.

Fourteen months after the papal visit, those ideas bore fruit.

Government-imposed price increases triggered a wave of strikes culminating
in the takeover of the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk by 17,000 workers. They were
led by a feisty electrician with a drooping mustache named Lech Walesa, who
knelt at the barricades armed only with images of the Black Madonna,
Poland’s most cherished religious symbol.

Timid church leaders in Poland were slow to grasp the meaning of what was
taking place and urged the strikers to show restraint. But in Rome, Pope
John Paul II understood immediately the importance of the strikers’ demands
and sent a message of support.

The strikers refused to buckle, and in August 1980 a revolution was born. It
called itself Solidarity.

Within three weeks of its founding, more than 3 million workers from 3,500
factories had declared their allegiance to Solidarity. Within months the
number would balloon to 10 million – more than one-quarter of the population.

In 1981, under mounting pressure from Moscow, Poland’s leaders imposed
martial law. A few minutes before midnight on Dec. 12, telephones across
Poland went dead, and tanks rumbled through the capital. Four thousand
Solidarity leaders, including Walesa, were rounded up and arrested.

The pope, still recovering from the gunshot wound inflicted by a would-be
assassin seven months earlier, prayed for his compatriots. That Christmas
Eve, he lit a single candle in the window of his Vatican apartment – a symbol
of “solidarity with suffering nations.”

But he was determined to do more than that. In 1983, after months of
negotiations with the Communist leaders of Poland, the pope returned. That
second pilgrimage would turn out to be one of the crowning achievements of
his papacy and an unmitigated disaster for the regime.

Despite warnings from the government to stay home, 3 million people turned
out for three open-air masses in Czestochowa. They heard the pope preach a
gospel of dignity, human rights and solidarity.

Despite tanks in the streets and the menacing presence of security police
everywhere, 300,000 gathered for a mass at a Warsaw stadium meant to hold
100,000.

Bronislaw Geremek, a professor of medieval history and key adviser to
Walesa, would later serve as democratic Poland’s foreign minister. But on
June 17, the day of the pope’s open air mass at the football stadium,
Geremek was in Warsaw’s Rakowiecka Prison. He recalls the extraordinary
silence that descended upon the city as the pope began to speak.

By the time the pope left Poland, the regime was more afraid of its own
people and the Polish pope than it was of Moscow’s hollow threats of
invasion. A month after the papal visit, martial law was lifted.

The road to freedom and democracy would not be easy for the Poles. As their
economy continued its slow motion free-fall, the country’s rulers stubbornly
clung to power, harassed Solidarity activists and curtailed human rights.

But the Solidarity movement – officially non-existent – had regained the
initiative, and, with constant reinforcement from the Vatican, it would hold
fast until the regime finally gave way.

At the beginning of 1987, a full two years before the beginning of the talks
that would mark the formal dismantling of communism in Poland, Gen. Wojciech
Jaruzelski traveled to Rome for a meeting with the pope.

At this point, writes papal historian George Weigel, “Both men knew who had
won.”

And with the ascent to Soviet leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev, who signaled
that he would not continue to use military might to suppress Eastern Europe,
the only real issue was to secure a peaceful transition.

In January 1989, Jaruzelski announced he would recognize Solidarity and meet
with Walesa for a series of talks on the future of Poland. The talks began
in February. Two months later the regime agreed to semi-free elections:
Jaruzelski would remain as president and the Communists would be guaranteed
65 percent of the seats in parliament. The remaining 35 percent could be
contested.

The election was held June 4, and Solidarity won all of the 192 contested
seats. There also was an election for the newly created Polish Senate.
Solidarity swept 99 out of 100 seats. Historians estimated that 80 percent
of the Communist Party’s membership must have voted for Solidarity.

A humiliated Jaruzelski took office as president, but he bowed to the
inevitable by naming Tadeusz Mazowiecki, a leading Catholic intellectual
with close ties to the pope, as prime minister. Mazowiecki was the first
non-Communist to head a government in Eastern Europe since World War II.

In short order, the communist regimes of neighboring countries began to
crumble. Hungary, East Germany and Czechoslovakia saw peaceful revolutions.
Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia and Albania followed, though not always
gently.

Although the CIA and the rest of Washington failed to see it coming, the
collapse of the Soviet Union was only a matter time.

Gorbachev’s perestroika reforms were too little, too late. The Baltic
republics – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – had been agitating for greater
freedoms since 1987. With the dramatic collapse of communism in the Soviet
satellite states, the Baltic peoples stepped up their demands. Nationalist
movements were on the rise in the Ukraine, Armenia and Georgia as well.

>From his earliest days in power, Gorbachev was deeply curious about the
Slavic pope.

A decade later, Gorbachev would write, “Everything that has happened in
Eastern Europe in recent years would have been impossible without the pope’s
efforts and the enormous role, including the political role, he has played
in the world arena.”

The pontiff takes a more modest view of his role.

“I didn’t cause this to happen,” he told an interviewer. “The tree was
already rotten. I just gave it a good shake, and the rotten apples fell.”

For a thousand years, the Catholic Church has been the guardian and
repository of the Polish national identity. Nowhere in Europe is a nation so
closely tied to its faith.

The Polish pope also saw his homeland as a living bridge between the two
Europes, East and West. And it was his hope – his expectation – that Poland
would not only regain its freedom, but would lead the rest of Europe back to
Christianity.

In the immediate aftermath of the regime’s collapse, the Polish church
claimedvictory for itself and demanded its say in the new nation. Poland’s
liberal abortion laws were abolished, and the Catholic catechism was taught
in state schools.

Many cities and towns renamed streets in honor of Pope John Paul II. From
the pulpit, bishops instructed the faithful for whom they should vote.

Most Poles saw things differently. The church, of course, had aided the
people, but that did not mean the church owned the victory. The last thing
Poles wanted was to replace the “red” tyranny of communism with the “black”
tyranny of clerical rule.

Instead, Poles embraced Western-style capitalism and consumerism with
astonishing speed. Almost overnight, it seemed, the drab gray of Warsaw was
transformed by colorful billboards of Western companies advertising their
wares.

Poles also began to adopt the social norms of Western Europe. Ignoring the
church’s teaching on birth control, they had fewer babies. While tough
anti-abortion laws remain on the books, an illegal abortion underground
advertises openly in newspapers. In recent years, the divorce rate has
soared; church attendance has declined.

On the occasion of Pope John Paul II’s first visit to his homeland after the
fall of communism, Poles were expecting a celebration. Instead, they got a
scolding.

The pope took in the all the changes, and, like an angry Moses, he lashed
out at the “whole civilization of desire and pleasure which is now lording
it over us, profiting from various means of seduction. Is this civilization
or is it anti-civilization?”

“And what should be the criteria for Europeanism? Freedom? What kind of
freedom? The freedom to take the life of an unborn child?” he demanded.

The visit stunned Poles and left the pope feeling betrayed by his
compatriots. For the first time, the international media began to paint a
picture of the pope as an angry old man, out of touch with the times.

The years took their toll on the pontiff, but he hadn’t changed his message.
He never did.

His most recent visits to Poland have been occasions for great outpourings
of national pride. Last year, an estimated 2.5 million turned out for an
open-air mass in Krakow.

Among them was a 46-year-old steelworker named Henryk Otlinger. With tears
streaming down his face, he hoisted his 10-year-old daughter, Natalia, onto
his shoulders so that she might catch a glimpse of the man her father said
“was the most important person in the world, in the country and privately
for us, in our family.”

In Krakow that day, there was little evidence of the “new evangelization”
the pope has yearned for. But the Poles came – young and old – to honor the man
that many of them consider to be the greatest Pole who ever lived, a man of
awesome spiritual power who gave his nation the strength to liberate itself.

Copyright © 2005, Chicago Tribune

Turkish Press

Press Scan
Published: 4/2/2005

APRIL 23 EXPECTATION

SABAH- Armenians expect Turkey to make a gesture one day before the
”Genocide Day” and open the border.

Armenia, which fights with poverty, believes that free movement will help
development of both countries, and also has the belief that particularly
Turkey will make a gesture on April 23rd and open the borders.

EducationGuardian.co.uk, UK

Schools news

A father’s place is in the classroom

Men urged to pitch in at school as studies show their involvement improves
children’s behaviour and grades

Amelia Hill and Yvonne Roberts
Sunday April 3, 2005
The Observer

Men could soon be sweating over sewing, trying to cook a Sunday roast with
laughing five-year-olds, or helping a class with weaving. For the government
is to back a major scheme to encourage fathers into schools after fresh
evidence that visiting their children in the classroom increases academic
achievement and leads to better behaviour.

At a major conference on the role of fathers in the family this week,
Margaret Hodge, the Children’s Minister, will back projects which include
fathers hosting Sunday roasts for children, helping with sports sessions and
children’s reading clubs.

Hodge will cite a series of projects across the country where the role of
fathers has increased pupils’ achievement. Children talked of being proud of
‘their dads’ coming into school, raising their enthusiasm for classes.

The announcement on Tuesday will coincide with the publication of the most
comprehensive study ever made of fathers’ involvement in their children’s
learning.

The government-backed survey, conducted by the charity Fathers Direct,
looked at dozens of schools which have pioneered ways to involve fathers in
their children’s schooling.

In one example, Gareth Todd-Jones, head of the Pen Pych community primary
school in Mid-Glamorgan, asked fathers to meet him in the local rugby club
after studying research showing a child’s education could be transformed by
the active involvement of their father.

‘The valley, one of the most deprived areas in Europe, is an old mining town
and a lot of people have a rough, tough image of what it is to be a man,’
said Todd-Jones. ‘They were not meant to do anything with their children.

‘But they are now going camping with their children, doing cooking classes,
making cards for Mothers’ Day, woodwork, sewing and making weaving frames,’
he said.

There are now 20 fathers and grandfathers in the Pen Pych Superdads group,
and Todd-Jones is planning to print beer mats with ‘Superdads Pen Pych’ on
one side and an invitation to join on the other.

‘I have touched a nerve here with these young children,’ he added. ‘There
has been a definite improvement in performance in the classroom. Children
with active fathers tend to have good social skills and their overall
behaviour has improved.’

Robert Davies, the father of three children under 11, was a founding member
of Superdads. ‘Most men in this area, like me, didn’t even know how to
interact with their children before this group came along,’ he said.

‘What I’ve learnt has transformed our whole family: I am closer to my
children than I have ever been and their behaviour both at home and at
school is unrecognisable.

‘It’s amazing that something as simple as me being involved in their
lessons, should make them think of school as fun. They are now ahead in all
their classes.’

The study looked at other examples, including cookery sessions designed to
improve communications skills between dads and their children at Bungay high
school in Suffolk and a Bring Dad to School Day at Kensal Rise primary
school, north London, which more than two-thirds of the fathers attended.

At South Haringey infants school, also in north London, a Share for Dads
scheme has been created to give fathers an insight into school life.

‘The children say they feel special and like it when their father visits the
school,’ said Adrienne Burgess, co-founder of Fathers Direct, which studied
South Haringey’s project.

‘Teachers noted widespread pride and greater confidence among the “Share
dads” children; the positive impact of male role models made them much
happier, calmer and better motivated.’

The fathers who became involved were able to talk to teachers more
confidently and reported becoming far closer to their children.

Publication of the survey will coincide with the announcement that Britain’s
most prominent public champion of sex equality is to lead Fathers Direct,
which lobbies for ‘father-friendly’ policies.

Julie Mellor, head of the Equal Opportunities Commission since 1999, will
take the same role at Fathers Direct. Her prime aim, she said, would be to
highlight the fact that ‘a crucial piece of the jigsaw’ is missing from the
family agenda of all three of the major political parties.

‘Men have already changed on an unprecedented scale, but politicians have
yet to properly acknowledge that.

‘In 21st-century families, fathers are doing a third of the parental
childcare. That’s eight times what it was 30 years ago. Then they spent 15
minutes a day on childcare; now it’s two hours..’

Mellor said 40 per cent of fathers were stressed at having too little time
with their children, and 10 per cent had given up, or not taken, a job they
couldn’t reconcile with family life.

‘Whichever party wins the general election, fathers will continue to be
pushed unwillingly into the role of main breadwinner, and mothers will
largely be left holding the baby while working for less than fair wages,’
she said.

Choices for men and women on how to share childcare were severely limited,
Mellor said, because men earned two-thirds of the family income and low pay
often blighted women.

The right to two weeks’ paternity leave was introduced in 2003, but the
take-up has been poor because the pay is so low men that prefer instead to
take holiday leave.

‘If public policy did more to support fathers in the care of their children,
women’s choices would also widen,’ Mellor said. In addition to much improved
paternity rights she will also push for a review of the benefits system for
separated families.

She backed the greater involvement of fathers in schools. ‘We also have
evidence that fatherhood, given the right support, will motivate young men
coming out of prison to find work and stop offending,’ she added.

Dads who make a difference

· Pottery primary school in Belper runs an ‘It’s a Man Thing’ project,
focusing on reading, writing and helping encourage fathers to become more
active in their children’s learning. The project has been run in Derbyshire,
Dudley, Hereford, Bradford, Coventry, Newham and Portsmouth.

· The Youth Sports Trust has joined community learning charity ContinYou to
develop a Top Dads project in schools across the country to introduce young
fathers to sport-related play, while offering one-to-one and small group
mentoring guidance on positive parenting.

· A group of secondary schools in Hampshire has started Lads and Dads Book
Clubs for boys aged from 11 to 15. The teenagers read with their fathers
twice a term.

· ContinYou’s Active Dads project runs in schools across Britain to help
fathers and other male carers engage with their children through a variety
of activities including reading, walking, and going on trips to leisure
centres or places of local interest.

· A cricket programme in Lancashire tries to involve dads more closely in
their teenage sons’ education. Cricket-loving boys and their fathers are
loaned cricket kit, books and activity cards, and encouraged to read
together as well as play sport.

· South Haringey infant school in north London aims to give fathers an
insight into school life through a Share for Dads project, in which a group
of fathers from Zambia, Somalia, Turkey, Armenia, Bangladesh, Italy and the
Caribbean meets weekly at the school for a range of activities, with and
without their children.

Special report

Armenian premier warns against “excessive politicization” of state agencies

Arminfo
2 Apr 05

YEREVAN

Despite various hardships, the ruling coalition of Armenia has proved
its resilience, the leader of the Republican Party of Armenia [RPA],
Prime Minister Andranik Markaryan, told a meeting dedicated to the
15th anniversary of the RPA today.

Markaryan expressed the hope that the coalition will fulfil its
mission before the tenure of the third parliament expires. He also
said that some contradictions emerge within the coalition over certain
issues from time to time, but they are all resolved through political
consultations.

The country still has many problems that the coalition has to resolve,
Markaryan said. The prime minister pointed to corruption, the shadow
economy, favouritism and poverty as the problems that undermine the
foundations of statehood.

Markaryan added that excessive politicization of government structures
may bring about bitter ramifications for the country.

“Of course, if the ruling forces possess an appropriate personnel base
to work in state administrative structures, one should only welcome
this. However, if people are appointed only for their party
affiliation, not for professional skills, or if people occupying this
or that position are made to join this or that ruling party in one
day, this is a blow to statehood and the political system,” Markaryan
said.

He stressed that the government aims to form a class of professional
public servants to work in administrative structures regardless of who
is in power.

What Terri Schiavo’s Death Means for Dr. Jack Kevorkian

By Jenny Kiljian

April 2, 2005

Theresa Marie `Terri’ Schiavo, 41, was in a persistent vegetative
state for 15 years in a Florida hospice. Schiavo died on March 31;
she lived 13 days after doctors disconnected her feeding tube.

Her case has prompted an international confabulation among doctors,
legal scholars, ethicists, religious leaders and politicians.

One voice that has been largely absent from the debate has been
Dr. Jack Kevorkian, both reviled and admired internationally for his
commitment to providing euthanasia to people suffering from terminal
illness.

Kevorkian, 76, is serving a 10- to 25-year sentence for second-degree
murder after being convicted of giving a fatal injection of drugs to a
Lou Gehrig’s disease patient in 1998.

The former pathologist has promised in affidavits and requests for
pardon or commutation that he will not assist in a suicide if he is
released from prison.

Kevorkian told ABC News he is “dismayed” by the Schiavo case. “What
bothers me is the bit of hypocrisy in all of this,” said Kevorkian.
“When the president and the Congress get involved because life is
sacred and must be preserved at all costs, they don’t say anything
about the men on death row, and their lives are just as precious.”

But Kevorkian does believe some good can come from the debate over
people’s end-of-life wishes. “One thing, it has raised the issue, and
many more people would be willing to face it and discuss with families
and society in general,” he said.

Although Kevorkian is not eligible for parole until 2007, his attorney
Mayer Morganroth said that he would be approaching the courts in
November for Kevorkian’s early release. Although Gov. Jennifer
Granholm has said she will not consider pardoning Kevorkian, sources
close to the case say that Schiavo’s death could have an impact on
Granholm’s decision.

`There is of course a lot of media that are promoting his release, and
calls are coming in by the score at the prison and all over the place
that he should be released,’ said Morganroth. `The public is becoming
aware that he shouldn’t be in prison. The case has raised their
awareness again.’

Kevorkian, prisoner No. 284797, lives in a 7-by-11-foot cell at the
Thumb Correctional Facility in Michigan.

While Terry Schiavo’s case could help Kevorkian from a legal
standpoint, Morganroth pointed out key differences between the two
cases.

`Dr. Kevorkian had approval both in writing and orally by the person,
and by family members. If anyone objected, the procedure wasn’t
performed,’ he said. `Dr. Kevorkian examined all the medical records
and sent the person to a psychiatrist to make sure that the person
wasn’t suffering from depression. He also made sure that the person
was in irremedial pain and suffering and was terminal. Then,
Dr. Kevorkian would film the discussion with the person, and wouldn’t
perform the procedure for a period of weeks – giving the person the
opportunity to change their mind.’

Michael Schiavo contends his wife would not want to be kept alive
artificially. But her parents, Mary and Bob Schindler, argue she had
no such death wish and believe she could get better with
rehabilitation.

Terri Schiavo did not leave anything in writing about what she would
want if she ever became incapacitated. Over the years, courts have
sided with her husband in more than a dozen cases.

`In the case of Terry Schiavo, it’s far from what Dr. Kevorkian
did. But that doesn’t change the fact that if Terry Schiavo wanted her
life to be terminated, that it should be done. That’s what the courts
decided.’

Morganroth said Kevorkian turned down `3 out of 4′ people who came to
him, some of whom testified at his trial that they had come to him and
been rejected.

Kevorkian, whose health is deteriorating, has no relatives in the
United States. He never married, and has no children.

In February, he was briefly released from prison to undergo surgery
for a double hernia. Besides the hernia, Kevorkian reportedly has
hepatitis C, high blood pressure, arthritis, a heart murmur,
circulatory problems and the beginning stages of cataracts in his
eyes.

Morganroth also mentioned plans to turn Kevorkian’s story into a major
motion picture, called `You Don’t Know Jack.’ After years of rejecting
book and movie offers, Kevorkian has given the go-ahead for projects
to begin, but he says he will not benefit financially from any project
based on his life.

Internationally acclaimed actor Ben Kingsley is being tapped to
portray Kevorkian. `We haven’t made an offer to him yet, but he’s at
the top of our list,’ said producer Steve Jones, who has taken on the
project with Oscar-winning director Barbara Kopple. `We think he’d be
the perfect fit for the role.’

The film is not about the euthanasia debate, but a character study of
Kevorkian. `I don’t intend to make a film that bolsters
euthanasia. This is a story about an extraordinary life. No matter
what you think of Kevorkian, he is a genius,’ said Jones in a recent
interview with the Free Press. `The film will look at the life of
Dr. Kevorkian and all the incredible layers of his personality, and it
will look at a man who’s given up so much for what he believes.’

Ironically, it was a videotape that got Kevorkian convicted in
1998. For a time, thanks to his work, physician-assisted suicide had
been widely accepted and legally tolerated. By his count, he helped in
more than 130 suicides between 1990 and 1998. Courts would not convict
him and, after a while, prosecutors stopped charging him. Then, in
September, 1998, he performed the euthanasia of Thomas Youk, a
middle-aged man suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease.

When Michigan law enforcement authorities did not charge Kevorkian
with killing Youk, he took a tape of the incident to CBS Television,
which aired it in the news program `60 Minutes.’ On the program,
Kevorkian challenged prosecutors to act; three days later Kevorkian
was charged with the offense.

Jenny Kiljian is the editor of the Armenian Weekly.
This article has been reprinted from the Armenian
Weekly with permission.

The Tribune, India

Sunday, April 3, 2005, Chandigarh, India

Vatican announces new Bishops

Vatican City

Pope John Paul II has appointed two new archbishops and papal ambassadors
and accepted the resignations of three other prelates, the Vatican said
today as the Pope lay on his deathbed.

A Vatican statement said the Pope had approved the new appointments on March
12, before his rapid deterioration.

He named Bishop Manuel Urena Pastor Archbishop of Zaragoza in Spain, and
accepted the resignation of his predecessor, Elias Yanes Alvarez.

The Pope also accepted the resignation of Nerses Der Nersessian as Bishop
for Armenian Catholics in eastern Europe, naming Bishop Nechan Karakeheyan
as his successor and elevating him as Archbishop.

He accepted the resignation of Bishop Vartan Kechichian, the Armenian
coadjutor bishop.

The Vatican said the Pope also appointed Archbishop Luigi Pezzuto, formerly
Nuncio in Tanzania, as Nuncio – or Ambassador – to El Salvador and Bishop
Giambattista Diquattro to Panama, elevating him as Archbishop. – AFP

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Shamokin News Item, PA

Daniel Decker will perform concert Sunday in Augustaville

04/02/2005

AUGUSTAVILLE – International recording artist Daniel Decker will be
presenting a concert during the 10:30 a.m. worship service Sunday at
Augustaville Wesleyan Church, Route 890.
Decker’s latest release, `My Offering,’ is a refreshing blend of styles
ranging from modern worship to classical tradition to Latin jazz. Rich with
flamenco guitars, Armenian duduk, Decker’s unique stylings at the piano and
a special appearance by the Armenian Philharmonic on two tracks, he shatters
cultural barriers with this breakthrough release.
He recently appeared in a special concert with members of the Armenian
Philharmonic during Independence Day celebrations in Armenia in the presence
of Armenian president Robert Kocharian. His music is inspirational, lively
and will touch the hearts of both young and old.
For information about Decker’s music, visit his Web site at

©The News Item 2005