NEW YORK, NY—On Sunday, October 1, the more than three decades of service that His Grace Bishop Anoushavan Tanielian has rendered to the Armenian Church will be celebrated as well as his recent Episcopal consecration in June.

The celebration will take place at the Terrace on the Park in Flushing Meadows, New York, beginning at 3 pm, under the auspices of His Eminence Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan, Prelate of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America. Bishop Anoushavan will officiate over the Divine Liturgy in the morning at St. Sarkis Armenian Church in Douglaston, New York, where he served as parish priest for two decades. Last year he was assigned to serve as Vicar General of the Prelacy, a post that he previously fulfilled on a part-time basis.

EARLY YEARS
Bishop Anoushavan (baptismal name Torkom) was born on January 29, 1951, in Beirut, Lebanon, the sixth and youngest child of Antranig and Araxie Tanielian.

He received his elementary education at Forty Martyrs School. From a very young age he participated in the choir, singing the beautiful religious hymns. His grandfather, Artin, his mother and father, and his Sunday school teachers were his early instructors in religion. “I remember my mother’s simple but very deep faith,” he recalls today. “She had many religious traditions she faithfully kept. My parents have been my best teachers. I came to understand God’s essence, through their unconditional love, understanding, patience and forgiveness.”

Torkom took a giant step in his early years when he left home and entered the Seminary in Antelias. “Now I realize what sacrifices my mother made when I told her of my decision to go to Antelias. She supported my decision and wished me good luck, but I still remember her tearful eyes.”

Torkom Tanielian was ordained a celibate priest on November 26, 1972, by Archbishop Ardak Manougian, Prelate of Tehran, Iran, and given the new name, Anoushavan.

In 1974, he received the fourth degree of Vartabed of the Armenian Church by Catholicos Khoren I. This was just the beginning of the many works and responsibilities that he undertook at the Catholicosate of Cilicia from 1973 to 1984. Besides extensive scholarly work, during this period his days were filled with the responsibility of being the librarian of the Catholicosate, where he admits he was the happiest in the world of books.

SPIRITUAL ADVISOR
Through lectures and seminars he became a spiritual advisor to young men and women in the Theological Seminary, Hamazkayin Armenological Studies Institute, Mardigian and Garmirian elementary schools, and to the Armenian Church University Students Association.

Those early years of his service were also the years of the tragic civil war in Lebanon. Although these years were a dark period in his life, they were also the time when his years of training went into practice. He demonstrated the true meaning of social work. He joined with social agencies to provide help. He made regular visits to the hospitals to visit the wounded. He visited the homes of the needy.

During this period, witnessing the inhumanity of human beings towards one another, he understood the true role of prayer. “In this war period I felt how mighty prayer is, not only as a daily necessity but as the main source of vitality. It is only through prayer and conversations with God that you receive an inner power to resist hopelessness,” he recalls now.

ECUMENISM AND VISIT
TO ARMENIA
In the summer of 1978, Bishop Anoushavan attended the World Council of Churches Faith and Order Commission in Bengalore, India, beginning his many years of ecumenical encounters. His experience and expertise resulted in his recent appointment by Catholicos Aram I as the Ecumenical Officer on behalf of the Catholicosate of Cilicia in the entire United States of America.

His first visit to Armenia took place in 1976. This was to be followed by many more on various occasions for different reasons. His most recent visit was this past summer where he directed a summer religious camp for some of the orphans in the Prelacy’s Orphan Sponsorship Program. But that first trip in ’76, which extended for three months, was memorable: “My heart was pounding when I saw the wide peaks of Mount Ararat over the skies… When the plane landed, I was serene and felt that I was home at last.”

UNITED STATES AND
HIGHER EDUCATION
His first visit to the United States was in 1980 when he came as the staff bearer to His Holiness Karekin II. He returned in 1984 to attend Princeton Theological Seminary where he received a Master of Theology degree. He was awarded another Masters Degree from Columbia University in Philosophy in 1992. Thus began his long journey toward his doctoral degree.

His student days were filled not only with studies but also service, especially to St. Gregory the Illuminator Church in Philadelphia, and Sts. Vartanantz Church in New Jersey. Along with Sunday preaching, he conducted Bible studies, organized youth seminars and lecture series, and organized a unique sharagan (hymns) choir.

SERVICE TO ST. SARKIS
He was called to full time service to St. Sarkis Church in Douglaston, New York, and therefore had to put his doctoral studies on the “back burner.” He was appointed to serve as pastor of St. Sarkis by His Eminence Archbishop Mesrob Ashjian and he continued to serve that parish until May 2005 when he was called to serve as full time Vicar General of the Eastern Prelacy. His two decades of service to St. Sarkis were marked with tremendous achievements for the parish. He revitalized or created anew many of the auxiliary groups that became and continue to be a lifeline for the parish.

PERSEVERANCE BRINGS
ACHIEVEMENT
After many years of concentrated effort while serving as a full time parish priest, part time Vicar of the Prelacy, and chairman of the Religious Council, Bishop Anoushavan Tanielian was conferred with the Doctor of Philosophy degree from Columbia University in May 2003.

At the time Archbishop Oshagan, the Prelate, noted, “Others in his circumstances would have just given up, but Hayr Anoushavan persevered and in spite of a ‘double-time-plus’ schedule he succeeded in completing his studies and his dissertation and he graduated with high distinction.”

His doctoral dissertation was on St. Nerses of Lambron, specifically his Commentary on the Wisdom of Solomon. He recalls that he chose this for two reasons: the personality of the author and the nature of his work. “Nerses of Lambron was a unique individual,” he said. “Like his namesake, Catholicos Nerses the Great, he was a man of intellect, compassion and particularly adept at negotiations. Like the Holy Translators, he was open-minded in borrowing from the achievements of fellow Christians in order to enrich the Armenian heritage.”

CELEBRATING SERVICE
Today, Bishop Anoushavan continues his dedicated service to the Church with new responsibilities. But his goal remains the same: To serve the Armenian Church and to make her a beacon of faith for the Armenian people in the diaspora and the homeland.

The celebration on October 1 is in honor of Bishop Anoushavan but it is also a celebration of the sacrifice and dedication of our early Church Fathers, who continue to guide the steps of those in service today.

For information about the banquet in honor of Bishop Anoushavan, contact the Prelacy at 212-689-7810.

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