Over twenty Sunday school directors and teachers, as well as New England clergymen, gathered at the Holy Virgin Mary Spiritual Vineyard, a Coptic Orthodox Retreat Center in Charlton, Massachusetts, October 26-28, 2007, for a conference on Prayer – Personal and Communal. Sponsored by the Armenian Religious Education Council (AREC) and held under the leadership of His Grace Bishop Anoushavan, Vicar General of the Prelacy, the weekend conference included a Bible study, lectures, workshops, worship services and Badarak.

The beautiful Holy Virgin Mary Spiritual Vineyard is about an hour southwest of Boston. The retreat center is situated on 187 acres of peaceful, open land which facilitates meditation and spiritual communion with God. The participants came from seven Prelacy parishes, namely, St. Sarkis Church in Douglaston, NY; Sts. Vartanantz Church in Ridgefield, NJ; St. Stephen’s Church in Watertown MA; St. Asdvadzadzin Church in Whitinsville, MA, St. Gregory’s Church in North Andover, MA; Holy Trinity Church in Worcestor, MA, and Sts. Vartanantz in Providence, RI.

The weekend started off with a Bible Study led by Rev. Fr. Paul Tarazi, Ph.D., Professor of Biblical Studies at St.Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminar in NY. It focused on the Parable of the unjust judge (Luke 18:18). The study set the tone for the weekend, which emphasized what to pray for repeatedly. The next day, Fr. Tarazi presented two sessions on Prayer according to the Scriptures. Fr. Tarazi first provided the essential background about ancient Near East to properly understand the notion of prayer. and in his second session he expounded on the Lord’s Prayer and entertained questions regarding various aspects of biblical prayer

In the afternoon, His Grace Bishop Anoushavan gave an interesting lecture entitled Praying with the Armenian Church. The group was taught the seven daily Hours in the Armenian Church, times at that are customary for Armenian Christians to dedicate to God through prayer. The seven hours are: the Night Hours (Kisherayin Zham), the Morning Hours (Aravodean Zham), the Sunrise Service (Arevakali Zham), the Midday Hours (Jashu Zham), the Evening Service (Yeregoyan Zham), the Peace Hour (Khaghaghagan Zham) and Rest Hour (Hankusdyan Zham). The structure and themes of each of the prayer hours were also briefly discussed.

Dn. Shant Kazanjian, Director of AREC, spoke about establishing a personal rule of prayer. The objective of the lecture was to highlight the importance of daily prayers and to help the participants with the structure of personal prayers. The focus was mostly on the morning and evening prayers; however, the participants were taught that communication with God on a regular basis is vital to every Christian and how they must integrate prayer in their busy schedules. Basic elements of a rule of prayer were discussed and resources were made available to the participants.

The final session and workshop was conducted by Mary M. Shamshoian Olson, Ed. D., Director of Curriculum and Instruction for Consolidate School District 158 in Illinois. It included discussions on what, how and where to pray; various sources from which prayers can be found; and why prayer is taught to children. Her workshop session was aimed specifically at how to instruct religion and teach prayer to various age groups. The class was taught that the most vital and challenging task every teacher faces is how to “hook” the children and get their attention, whether they are five, ten or sixteen yearsold. Specifics regarding the “We Believe” textbooks as well as supplements and suggestions were also discussed.

Sunrise (Arevakal) and Peace-Compline Services were observed. The weekend conference culminated with the celebration of Sourp Badarak on Sunday. Rev. Fr. Antranig Baljian, Pastor of St. Stephen’s Armenian Church in Watertown, MA, celebrated and delivered the sermon.