Message
to the National Representative Assembly [translation]
by Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan, Prelate
Armenian Apostolic Church of America (Eastern United States)
St.
Gregory the Illuminator Church
Granite City, Illinois
May 19, 2005
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Armenian version
We
greet all of you with our fatherly love on the occasion of
the National Representative Assembly (NRA), of the Eastern
Prelacy, with the heartfelt wish that our meetings during
the coming days will be productive, practical and helpful
as we examine the work accomplished during the prior year
and set our horizons for our forthcoming year.
I have special words of thanks on behalf of the Religious
and Executive Councils and all of our parishes and faithful,
to Granite City’s St. Gregory the Illuminator Church,
to the pastor Rev. Fr. Serop Azarian, the Board of Trustees,
affiliated and sister organizations, for their hospitality
as the hosts of this National Representative Assembly, for
the first time in the history of this community.
As much as this indicates their preparedness and dedication,
it is as much—and more—a testimony to the advancement
and self-confidence a number of our smaller parishes have
displayed. Words of appreciation also to our faithful people,
who keep the Church of St. Gregory the Illuminator alive and
vital with their presence and participation.
I welcome the representative of the Eastern Diocese of the
Armenian Church, Mr. George Marifian. Please extend my best
wishes and brotherly love to His Eminence Archbishop Khajag
Barsamian and to the Diocesan Council. We are pleased and
happy to have your presence at this Assembly during the next
few days.
Dear
Delegates,
The year 2005 presented to us remembrances that have profound
importance for our nation’s spiritual advancement, collective
memory of affliction, and the education and training of our
clergy. In other words, 2005 is the 1600th anniversary of
the founding of the Armenian alphabet, which we mark with
glory; the 90th anniversary of the Genocide of 1915, which
we mark with remembrance; and in our more recent history in
the Diaspora, the 75th anniversary of the re-establishment
of the theological seminary of the Holy See of Cilicia in
Antelias, Lebanon, which we mark with testaments.
From these three important commemorations, we decided to focus
on the 1600th anniversary of the founding of the Armenian
alphabet here at this Assembly, because we see in this anniversary
the miraculous transformation that it created. Through the
invention of the Armenian alphabet the Armenian people received
a new image, a unique identity and the means to create new
and noble directions.
Naturally, we are not going into deep historical details here
of how St. Mesrob Mashtots created the Armenian alphabet,
implemented the translation of the Bible, nurtured Armenian
literature, opened schools and gave our Christian people a
unique and final imprint. In the fifth century our spiritual
and intellectual environment received new direction. After
the changes brought about by Christianity, the creation of
the Armenian alphabet united Christianity and the new Armenian,
who remained physically and anatomically tied to their inherited
heritage, but spiritually and intellectually became combined
with the Bible and the way of living and thinking transmitted
by Christianity.
What happened in the fifth century? Why did the invention
of the Armenian alphabet occur and what result did this have
in the collective life of our people?
Mesrob Mashdots’s biographer, Goriun, very clearly describes
Mesrob Mashdots’s spiritual turbulence and resentment
at the sight of the inability of the children of the Armenian
nation, which was the first to accept Christianity, to understand
the fountainhead of Christianity—the Bible. The services
in church, the hymns, prayers, Bible studies all took place
either in Greek or Assyrian. The Christian Armenian did not
understand the readings, nor anything that took place. The
infiltration of Christianity in the Armenian soul was indispensable.
In other words, Christianity was clothing which we put on,
which could one day be taken off. The founding of the Armenian
alphabet, the translation of the Bible and other religious
sources, Armenian education, the Armenian school were the
reasons that in a very short time the clothing of Christianity
became the color of our skin from which it was impossible
to separate, just as it is described by the historian Yeghishe,
when relating the story of the heroes of Vartanantz and their
understanding of Christianity, only 45 years after the founding
of the Armenian alphabet.
The purpose of St. Mesrob and his compatriots was very clear:
It was necessary to give life to Christ’s message. Not
to hear, but to live the Bible and the establishment of the
alphabet was a spiritual revolution for us. The instinct of
self-defense of our nation grew to include the protection
of our religious and cultural treasures, which we believe,
can save us from all types of danger. The new Armenian was
created by the living example of the Bible and the words and
example of God’s Son. And it is not accidental that
the letters created by St. Mesrob reached us in a miraculous
way (at least that is what we believed). The angel’s
hand wrote the Armenian alphabet. A miracle happened. God
interceded in the life and future of the Armenians, and brought
from the sky the miraculous work of the alphabet. We, the
1600-year generations that followed Mesrob Mashdotz did not
see the hand of the angel. But is not the survival of this
small, weak nation, oppressed by an Empire, trampled and massacred
by barbarian invaders, a miracle? Perhap’s God’s
thoughtful plan? Even if we are skeptical and do not believe
in the miraculous creation of the Armenian alphabet, is our
development and progress because of that alphabet a miracle?
The genesis of the Armenians, our identity and the defense
of that identity, in spite of all the destructive occurrences—is
that not a miracle? We saw the effects of that miracle from
the founding of the alphabet up to this day in our cultural
creations, the heroic confrontations during war, the faith
in our resurrection during the massacres, and our people’s
triumphant future filled with firm hope and resolve.
In order to bring together our thoughts, I want to raise some
basic aspects that are the products of the invention of the
alphabet.
1.
In order to understand properly the impact of the creation
of the alphabet, we have to turn the pages of history back
to when the Armenian world officially adopted Christianity
in 301 AD. With our conversion, no matter what reasons given
by historians, the Armenians proclaimed their subservience
to Christ. We saw in Christ the natural picture of our national
life, thought, understanding and philosophy and once we professed
Him as our Lord, we remained faithful to Him and to the biblical
principles. The Bible did not only preach faith; it also formed
our character and thinking. Our mind and tongue, our judgment
and inter-relationships were molded on the teachings of Christ;
and we became good and adaptable to conditions—not as
slaves, not as a people void of vitality. On the contrary,
our creative abilities became more fluid. We saw that the
victory of our struggle of endurance and survival was in our
cultural treasures, turning Armenianism into the axis of our
family and collective education. It was in this way that our
families remained Armenian Christians, by appropriating the
Christian faith and expressing it in a practical way, while
stressing and keeping all of the Armenian’s qualifications,
which became our endurance, our weapon in our struggle against
all types of destructive and degenerate attacks.
The
poet Barour Sevag in his understanding of the Armenian people
appropriately pictures our people; he sees in them the inventor,
the good, the durable, the grateful, and the proud:
In our centuries of life
When we have been numerous
And have been strong,
We did not oppress other nations.
No one has suffered because of our power.
If we have enslaved:
Only with our books.
If we have ruled:
Only with our talent.
All
of this is not accidental. Neither is it obligatory. The picture
of our soul and mind with our biological genes are a model
of Christ and His Gospel. Being like Christ, looking at the
world like Christ, and to interact with those like us. In
plain words, our Christian faith and the strength that came
from it, we transformed into an instinct of self-defense.
There we found refuge. With that we were saved. Otherwise,
like others—poor and barefoot in spirit and mind—we
were going to be forgotten in the pages of history and relegated
to museums. We accepted the destruction, the murders and massacres
as a crucifixion with Christ, and turned our belief in His
Resurrection into determination and strength for survival.
2.
The Armenian Church received the discovery of the Armenian
alphabet as a means and used it to establish our Christian
identity. Who could have perceived the hopeless state of the
Armenian people who had accepted Christianity better than
Mesrob Mashdots? Christ was officially accepted but our people
did not completely understand. The Bible, ceremonies, and
prayers were in foreign language, uncommunicated, not immediate.
It was essential to make Christ speak Armenian, to make clear
the message of the Gospel, and communicate it to the Armenian
spirit which was ready to accept the truth and principles
of Christianity and to cement them with its essence, expression,
and life. It was necessary to mix the Christian faith with
the native qualities of the Armenians. The new Armenian was
created, building his history by his own power.
The
Armenian Church understood the discovery of the Armenian alphabet
in this way. It believed the servant of the Church, St. Mesrob
Mashdots, to be the bearer of the miracle of the Armenian
alphabet, which armed us, protected us, and as a nation made
us invincible. And once the anchor of the Armenian people
became unshakeable and unbreakable and strengthened in a way,
the centuries, with their evils, shattered against the granite
of our will, the geniuses who soared strengthened the national
and spiritual stronghold of the Armenians. The Armenian Church,
which has mixed together the Christian faith and national
culture, served our people, secured their existence, and protected
their identity, and enriched and expanded its mind and spirit.
It
became lord of its people, taking care of its people in the
form of a servant.
3.
All this took place in Armenia. Our house of faith and culture
was built on Armenian soil. The Christian virtues took shape
in our villages and towns. There stone became church and khachkar,
song became sharagans and meghetis, ink became books and illuminated
manuscripts. And the faith especially, the will to live. Faith
and language had created a strong Armenian who, with his sweat
built his fatherland, and with his blood defended it. All
of this took root in the soil of Armenia. Through St. Mesrob
Mashdots, the immovable Armenian was built, like the rocks
of Ararat, straight and strong, against which all kinds of
calamities came to strike and break.
But
it is natural and accepted that this understanding changed
ninety years ago, when the Genocide of 1915 expelled our people
from its cradle of birth, growth, development, establishment,
creation, and struggle, and turned us into a people scattered
throughout the world. New understandings and equations were
born for becoming and remaining Armenian. The discovery of
the Armenian alphabet shaped the Armenian, his character and
way of life. In the first decades after the Genocide he remained
Armenian (though certainly the pain, denial, suffering, and
exile changed a part of his psychology). But today, willingly
or not, new conditions and circumstances resound terribly,
because the Armenian people are losing one of their powerful
uniting forces, the Armenian language. There is no doubt that
we must all join to preserve our language. One of our supreme
responsibilities to our new fatherland is to the Armenian
language. This is the message that is struck into the consciousness
of every faithful Armenian who is in turmoil with the Armenian
voice and suffering, whether that Armenian is in America or
France, Argentina or Germany, Russia or the Middle East, or
anywhere else.
And
it is precisely here that the Armenian Church must find its
true and faithful accomplishment of its goal. Before the Genocide,
the children of the Armenian people were united by two forces—the
Church and language. Today even more the obligation of strengthening
the unity of the Armenian people is placed on the shoulders
of the Church. There is no doubt that independent Armenia
has the accomplishment of this goal today, which is gradually
becoming clear, in both the fatherland and in the diaspora.
In the present world, political relations and obligations
are much more complex than before due to political, diplomatic,
and economic causes, and the many and diverse problems and
conflicts that our fatherland faces have not even become visible,
and must be crystallized and have proper resolution. In the
face of this reality, the Church must have greater awareness
of its mission, which faces many obstacles, difficulties,
and new conditions. How is it necessary to confront secularism,
not to speak of unbelief? In what spheres in the life of our
nation must it accomplish its goals, and with what capital?
Must it extend its mission of spiritual and national education
for all, as it did in the past, or is it necessary to entrust
this goal to the state in Armenia or other organizations in
the diaspora in the face of diverse conditions and circumstances?
Much
is demanded of us. We have all willingly taken upon ourselves
the yoke of the holy mission of the church by developing in
our prelacy religious and national education to impel our
people to the things of highest interest. The 1600th anniversary
commemoration of the discovery of the Armenian alphabet must
transcend scholarly and inspirational celebrations. Let us
return to those times when the Armenian alphabet together
with the Christian faith created our heroic people and cast
firm the anchor of the existence of our people, where by living
we have found immortality.
The
Armenian language must not be understood simply as a means
of communication in the way in which we learn another language
to communicate with people who speak that language. Besides
being a means of communication, the Armenian language has
a profound wisdom and value for Armenians. In the Armenian
language is our logic, legacy, philosophy, way of life, cultural
heritage, and the soaring spirit. We are the Armenian language
with our entire identity and essence.
Let
us preserve it. Let us defend it.
ARCHBISHOP OSHAGAN
May 18, 2005, Granite City
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