40th Anniversary of Ordination of Archbishop Oshagan
Will be Celebrated during May in New England,
Mid Atlantic, and Mid West

by Iris Papazian
NEW YORK, NY—The community of the Eastern Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America, is preparing to celebrate the 40th anniversary of His Eminence Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan’s ordination to the priesthood during the month of May in three different locations.
Archbishop Oshagan has been the Prelate of the Eastern Prelacy since 1998 and last year during the National Representative Assembly he was elected to a third four-year term. A national steering committee, under the leadership of Jack Mardoian, Esq., chairman of the Prelacy’s Executive Council, is guiding the three events with the coordination of local committees.

New England
The first of the commemorations will take place on Saturday, May 5. The event, which is expected to draw attendees from various parts of New England, is being hosted by the Sts. Vartanantz Church of Providence, Rhode Island. The banquet will take place in the evening, beginning with a reception at 6:30, followed by dinner and program, at the Marriott on Orms Street in Providence, located right off Interstate 95 and easily reached from all areas of New England.

Mid Atlantic
One week later, on Saturday, May 12, the Mid Atlantic community will honor Archbishop Oshagan with a gala banquet at The Marriott at Glenpointe in Teaneck, New Jersey. A cocktail reception will begin at 7 pm, with dinner and program at 8 pm. The Marriott’s location is conveniently located at the crossroads of major highways and is easily accessible from New York to Washington.

Mid West
Coinciding with the Prelacy’s National Representative Assembly (NRA), which is being hosted by St. Sarkis Church, Dearborn, Michigan, the third event will take place on Friday, May 18, at Doubletree Hotel, in Dearborn. Cocktail reception will begin at 7 pm, with dinner and program beginning at 8 pm. This event will provide the opportunity for the faithful of the Mid West parishes to attend, as well as the NRA delegates who will be in Dearborn for the annual assembly.

Identical Programs
The program at all three events will be basically the same, with some variation for local artistic participation. Mr. Mardoian will be the Master of Ceremonies, and Judge Sarkis Teshoian will be the keynote speaker at all three events. A video message from His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, will be shown, as will a short video presentation about Archbishop Oshagan’s life and service. The Vicar General, His Grace Bishop Anoushavan Tanielian, who is hosting all three events on behalf of the Religious and Executive Councils, will introduce the Prelate.

Keynote Address
The Honorable Judge Sarkis Teshoian, a devoted son of the Armenian Church and a close friend of the Prelate, will deliver the keynote address at all three events. Judge Teshoian has served in many leading positions, including chairman of the Prelacy’s Executive Council. He has been honored by the Holy See of Cilicia for his devoted service by both Catholicos Karekin II, and Catholicos Aram I, who presented him with the highest civilian award—the Prince of Cilicia insignia—in 2005.
Judge Teshoian was appointed to the judiciary in 1988 by then Governor of Massachusetts, Michael Dukakis. Judge Teshoian, who retired recently after serving close to 18 years on the bench, notes that for a judge it is most important to have a sense of fairness, to allow individuals to present their perspectives, and to study situations without prejudice. By following his own guidelines, he has earned the respect of his fellow jurists and the public for his integrity, humanity, and his vast knowledge of the law.
Last year, the Massachusetts Judges’ Conference honored Judge Teshoian for judicial excellence in the district court. In 1980, he received the Ecumenical Award from the St. Thomas Moore Society.

Commemorative Booklet
A commemorative book is being published on this occasion devoted to the life and service of the honoree. The book will be a keepsake memento of an extraordinary gifted clergyman. Donations, which His Eminence has requested to benefit the Prelacy’s fund for clergy recruitment, training and education and religious publications, will be acknowledged in the commemorative book. Inquiries about this should be directed to the Prelacy office in New York City.
Archbishop Oshagan
Archbishop Oshagan was born in Aleppo, Syria, in 1947, with baptismal name of Manoog. He is the third of six children of Antranig and Marie (nee Kasbarian) Choloyan. He received his primary education in Aleppo’s Haikazian School. In 1960 he was accepted into the Cilician See’s Seminary in Antelias, Lebanon. He was ordained a deacon in 1964 and a celibate priest in 1967, and given the name Oshagan, by Bishop Karekin Sarkissian, who in 1994 as Catholicos Karekin II of Cilicia, ordained him to the Episcopal rank. He 1998, His Holiness Aram I elevated him to the rank of Archbishop.
He attended the American University of Beirut from 1968 to 1970 where he majored in history. From 1974 to 1978 he attended Princeton Theological Seminary where he majored in education and psychology, earning a Masters Degree. Continuing his studies at Princeton, he earned a second Masters in the history of the church.
In May 1977, he was called upon to serve as locum tenens of the Eastern Prelacy for eight months prior to the election of a new prelate. In April 1980, His Holiness Karekin II appointed him pontifical legate to Kuwait and the Arab Emirates, to organize the whole region, which in 1992 was officially declared the newest diocese of the Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia. He was subsequently elected to serve that diocese as prelate. In 1998, he was elected prelate of the Eastern Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America. He was re-elected in 2002 and 2006.

In addition to his demanding pastoral and leadership duties, Archbishop Oshagan has been a vital force in preserving the music of the Armenian Church. Together with the late Archbishop Zareh Aznavourian, he meticulously prepared five volumes of sharagans (hymns) of the Armenian Church, most of which were not available in print, thus preserving the hymns for posterity. He and Archbishop Aznavourian also collaborated on a new translation of the New Testament from Classical Armenian into modern Armenian. They were in the midst of translating the Old Testament when Archbishop Zareh passed away. Archbishop Oshagan is currently leading the continuation of this monumental work in tribute to his late spiritual brother.
Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan, Prelate of the Eastern Prelacy, will be honored on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood

He has been a member of the Middle East Council of Churches since 1979, serving for several years on the executive committee. He has served as a delegate to the World Council of Churches Assembly, and he has participated in many ecumenical meetings throughout the world representing the Holy See of Cilicia. He served as co-chair of the executive committee for the 1700th anniversary of the proclamation of Christianity as the state religion in Armenia. Most recently he was elected chairman of the newly formed organization of the churches of the Middle East in the United States.
Throughout his service to the Armenian Church he has been guided by his intense faith in the mission of the Church and his dedication to the Armenian nation, always guided by the words of St. Paul, “Therefore…be steadfast, immoveable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”

Information can be obtained from local parishes or the Prelacy by telephone (212-689-7810) or on the Prelacy web page (www.armenianprelacy.org) which lists complete information about all three events.
Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan greets Pope Benedict XVI, during a visit to the Vatican in January, where he represented the Holy See of Cilicia in the dialogue between the Catholic and Oriental Orthodox churches.