We greet you from the Monastery of the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia in Antelias with warm Christian love and pontifical blessing.

We spent almost the past two months with you, successively visiting the Prelacy of Canada and the Western and Eastern Prelacies of the United States. We were with you in churches and schools, community centers and benevolent institutions. This pontifical visit of ours became an opportunity to frequently mingle with the people and to better understand our dioceses in terms of their internal organization and structures, their accomplishments and plans, as well as the concerns and challenges faced by them. Our visit also furnished opportunities to have meetings with government officials, political figures, academic personnel and ecumenical leaders; to give lectures in universities, and to preside over international conferences.

Naturally, the observance of the 75th anniversary of the Seminary occupied an important place in the scope of our visit. Indeed, this effort to bring the 75 years of the Seminary’s service on a pan-Armenian level under the spotlight will certainly become a wonderful opportunity and a powerful challenge to reorganize and renew the Seminary’s mission in the face of the imperatives of life today.

We confirmed with deep satisfaction that, as a consequence of the persistent, dedicated and diligent work of the three Prelates and National Representative Assemblies of our three prelacies, the latter are presently in a good state of organization and on a vital course. We also witnessed with special joy that there is a body of people assembled around our prelacy structures, with its intellectuals and youth; a people, which participates in our collective life and is sensitive with regard to the issues affecting our life.

Having returned from our visit to the United States and Canada, We wish to make certain general observations and underscore certain points, which are directed toward our three prelacies.

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Renewal of faith
In our messages, we stressed the importance or, better yet, the urgent necessity of the renewal of Christian faith in the life of our people. Without faith, human life, on both individual and collective levels, loses its true identity and real purpose. Present-day society, which is in a state of indecision and crisis, is searching for its identity by way of strengthening faith. This phenomenon is very evident in American society today. We also noticed a manifest effort among our people to seek spiritual values.

However, this greatly appreciable effort must not remain confined solely to emotional manifestations, thereby becoming just a transitory and superficial phenomenon. Our connectedness to spiritual values must become a conscious effort of faith transforming our life through the presence of God and giving clear direction to both our individual and collective life both. This course of renewal of Christian faith must be channeled in such a way that foreign traditions and mores must never occupy a place therein. The effort toward renewal of faith among our people must be directed by our church but, at the same time, our centuries-old spiritual values and traditions must be adapted to the conditions surrounding us and the new imperatives of our life. Our clergymen have a pivotal role to play in this extremely vital work.

The realization of the mission of the Armenian Church
Our church is called upon to undertake and lead the effort toward reawakening and renewing Christian faith in the life of our people. This is the primary obligation of the church. The church is not only the source and nourisher of faith but also its propagator. With this zeal, our church must emerge from the narrow confines of its ceremonial and administrative life, and enter the life of our people on a mission of faith. The church among the people, with the people and for the people. This is not a slogan; rather, it is the genuine expression of the church’s real identity and true calling. This is how Christ’s church must be, everywhere and under all conditions. This is also what the people expect of the church. Our parish churches, with their pastors and constituent organizations, can play an effective role in this realm.
The Armenian Church also has the calling to perform national service. By national service, we understand an efficacious undertaking of total dedication, which befalls our church particularly in the Diasporan de-Armenizing environment -- the duty to address the needs of our people, to find a remedy for their ills and to enrich their life with national values and traditions. It is our expectation that our parish churches, as the foundation of our diocesan structure and life, become more organized in their internal life and become more active in their mission of education, evangelism and service. Therefore, the undertaking to regenerate and revive our parish churches in all aspects and in all their activities must become a basic priority for our three prelacies.

Reorganization of religious and Armenian instruction
With special satisfaction, we noticed that appreciable work in this direction continues to be carried out. In the realm of religious education, Sunday schools are operating, Bible study is being carried out, youth gatherings are taking place, and persistent effort is being made in the community schools to provide religious instruction on a more organized basis. This work must be performed with greater planning and on a more practical basis. It is necessary to utilize all the means of audiovisual technology, in order to reach our people, especially the young generation, and put them on a path of Christian formation.

As far as Armenian instruction is concerned, our three prelacies are allocating the most important share of their time, budget and human resources to the Armenian schools. As an expression of their zeal with regard to the Armenian education of our young generation, they are sparing no effort to develop new plans and adopting bold initiatives. During our meetings, as well as our public addresses, we stressed the importance of the urgent necessity of giving impetus to Armenian instruction. All aspects of our educational life are in need of comprehensive reevaluation and rearrangement. It is mandatory to develop a realistic educational policy, in which it is important to give special attention to Armenian education, along with adapting to local conditions. It is necessary to establish new schools, particularly in areas densely populated by Armenians; in addition, special courses of study must be organized on a more consistent basis for Armenian students attending non-Armenian schools because of the distant geographical location of their residences. All of these efforts require planning and sequential follow through -- work which our three prelacies must take on today, for tomorrow may be too late.

Preparation of new human resources
Besides considerable financial expenses and material needs, the aforementioned tasks also require human resources with academic preparation and knowledge of our national life and the conditions enveloping it. We consider the conjoining and harmonious presence of these three factors as absolute prerequisites in the preparation of such resources, clergymen and laypersons alike. In other words, the Armenians choosing to engage in spiritual and national service within our North American communities should preferably be the product of said environment and eminently familiar with their environment. Along with seeking higher education in a given profession, they must have become conversant with all aspects of the realities of our community life. Only such persons will be able to provide beneficial service within all realms of our collective life.

Therefore, those times when our American communities were engaged in a frantic effort to import manpower must be considered a thing of the past. Today, a huge potential exists in the United States and Canada. During our visit, we noticed with joy that there are youths born and raised in America, who are involved in our church organizations and who are ready to serve our people. It is also necessary to give them a sound Armenian orientation. Our churches, our institutions and organizations will lose their appeal and importance, if the generations going to them don’t find well-prepared, knowledgeable and dedicated individuals there. If we wish to regenerate and modernize our institutions, in terms of their life and activity, we must first renew the people working in them.

Cooperation for the sake of the preservation of the integrity of our church and people
This is the message we conveyed in the course of our public appearances and personal meetings. Internal dissensions and sentiments exist in our life. We consider vital the creation of realistic approaches and collective processes leading to the phase-by-phase solution of those matters, always based on local conditions and the internal organization of the given communities. At the same time, however, we consider of paramount importance the assemblage of all our structures and all the offspring of our people around pan-Armenian values, principles and interests. Cooperation must be developed to the greatest extent possible in all realms of our life, particularly in America.

Indeed, it is through cooperation that our ecclesiastic, cultural, educational, charitable and other organizations shall become more active and fruitful. It is through cooperation that our people shall increasingly assemble around our structures and live their Armenian identity, practically speaking. It is through cooperation that we shall guarantee the integrity of our people and strengthen the unity of our church and nation. Finally, it is through cooperation that we shall make the Diaspora more powerful and thereby have more active participation in the strengthening of Armenia. When our people, particularly the young generation, do not see that cooperation, they shall gradually distance themselves from our churches, our community centers and other organizations -- in other words, our collective life. We must be farsighted.

Strengthening of efforts to demand our rights as a nation
Among other positive developments, we noticed with great satisfaction the efforts being carried out in the pursuit of the rights of the Armenian people, both in Canada and in the United States. The organizations pursuing the Armenian Cause are engaged in ardent activity everywhere; they are in permanent contact with mayors, congressmen, senators and political party leaders. Indeed, it is as a consequence of serious efforts over many years that, last year, the Canadian Parliament recognized the Armenian Genocide, various state legislatures in the United States gave official recognition to the Armenian Genocide, and the issue of the recognition of the Armenian Genocide was brought before the U.S. Congress.

Within the context of efforts waged on behalf of the Armenian Cause, we were glad to also witness the working relationship created by our young men and women, who have specialized in the political sciences and international law, with members of the Canadian Parliament, US House of Representatives and Senate. We also confirmed, with satisfaction, the considerable acquaintance of governmental and political circles with the Armenian Cause and, particularly, their readiness to assist in the process of gaining recognition for the Armenian Genocide. As we suggested to the Armenian National Committee (Hai Tahd), the efforts being carried out in terms of the Armenian Cause must be continued with a new impetus and an approach corresponding to the present political conditions. Our prelates and national representative assemblies shall continue to bring their full and active participation to the efforts aimed at pursuing the satisfaction of the just rights of the Armenian people, because the Armenian Cause is also the cause of our church; it is the cause of the Armenian people as a whole.

Trusting in the young generation
During our meetings and dialogue with Armenian university students and youths, we noticed that a state of indecision prevails among them, when it comes to issues and events affecting the present society, in general, and Armenian life, in particular. We noticed that the young generation is in need of direction. We also sensed that a psychological complex exists among our young generation, stemming from their being kept on the margin of community life. Now, above all, we consider sincere dialogue with the young generation vital. As we emphasized in our messages, the youth does not belong to the future, but to the present. Maintaining the present status quo means living in the past. The old must be renewed with the new, and the new must be strengthened with the old. The young generation must become a participant in the life of today, practically speaking, even at the leadership level. With its various specializations, its new approaches, its courage to embrace broad horizons, the young generation must put its initiative to renew our community life into practice, for the further vitalization of the mission of our church and the further development of the life of our various communities.

Therefore, we don’t have the right to put the young generation in reserve for the future. We don’t have the right to view the youth in the passive role of mere follower. We must trust in the youth, we must approach them, and create dialogue with them. By means of our two paternal letters addressed to the youth in the course of the current year, we have already begun a dialogue with our youth. We believe in the dynamism and potentiality of youth. We believe in the singular benefit that the youth can bring to our national-ecclesiastic life. At the same time, it is our rightful expectation that, given certain conditions, the youths who have distanced themselves from the life of our communities will return to us, come back within the fold of our churches and organizations, and become participants in our collective life.

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Concluding our paternal message, along with our appreciation and joy, We wish to once again say that our people have great expectations from the church. We are certain that our Prelates and Prelacies will continue their spiritual mission and national service with the utmost degree of responsibility and dedication, taking the thoughts, concerns and suggestions made by us into serious consideration.

The Great House of Cilicia is always ready to assist in all the efforts being carried out toward the rebirth of Christian faith in the life of our people, the dissemination of spiritual, cultural and national values, the strengthening of our national unity, the solidification of our resolve to gain satisfaction of our national demands, and the furtherance of the rebuilding of our homeland.

We pray to Almighty God that He will enrich the service of our Prelates dedicated to the church and the betterment of our nation with new accomplishments. May He also grace the activity of our community leaders, our organizations and associations with new successes.

With Pontifical love and blessings,

H.H. ARAM I, CATHOLICOS
OF THE GREAT HOUSE OF CILICIA

November 10, 2005
Antelias

(Translated by Aris G. Sevag)