| NEW
YORK, NY—During the ten years of the Pontificate of His Holiness
Aram I, the Holy See of Cilicia has seen an era of advancement in a
number of areas affecting the revitalization of the church. For more
than forty years he has been a participant in the worldwide Ecumenical
Movement and today is considered to be one of the ecumenical giants
of our time.
As the community of the Eastern Prelacy prepares to welcome His Holiness
for a fourteen-day visit, it seems proper to pause and reflect on the
life and service of His Holiness Aram I.
Elected in 1995
His Holiness Aram I, the spiritual leader of the Holy See of Cilicia
of the Armenian Apostolic Church, was consecrated Catholicos on July
1, 1995, after serving as Primate of the Armenian Orthodox community
in Lebanon for 15 years.
He was ordained a celibate priest in 1968 and obtained the title of
Vartabed (Doctor of the Armenian Church) in 1970. In 1979, after serving
for one year as Locum Tenens, he was elected Primate of the Armenian
Orthodox community in Lebanon. The next year he received his Episcopal
ordination. His tenure as Primate of the Armenian community in Lebanon
coincided with the Lebanese Civil War. During this time and after, His
Holiness reorganized parishes and schools, restructured and reactivated
church-related institutions, and renewed community leadership.
Born in 1947 in Beirut, Lebanon, His Holiness is a graduate of the Armenian
Theological Seminary in Antelias, Lebanon, and the Ecumenical Institute
of Bossey, Switzerland. He received his M.Div. from the Near East School
of Theology, his S.T.M. jointly from the American University of Beirut
and Near East School of Theology, and his PhD from Fordham University
in New York. He also holds several honorary degrees. His major areas
of specialization are philosophy, systematic theology, and Near Eastern
church history.
In the ten years of his Pontificate, he reorganized and revitalized
the work of the Church, particularly in the areas of theological education,
Christian education, publications, communications, cultural activities,
youth, justice and peace, and human rights. He completed several construction
projects such as the Cilician Museum, Center of Archives and Manuscripts,
buildings for bishops and monks, a guesthouse and offices, a center
for youth and university students, and apartments for low-income families.
He made pontifical visits to all the dioceses of the Catholicosate in
the Middle East, Europe, and North and South America, creating a new
dynamism to the relationship between these worldwide dioceses and the
administrative center of the Church, the Catholicosate, in Lebanon.
During the past decade the Catholicos emphasized the Church’s
outreach through social service, including caring for orphans, the elderly
and the disabled.
The
Scholar
For many years His Holiness has lectured regularly on armenological,
theological, and ecumenical subjects at the Seminary and Haigazian University
in Beirut. He has also given numerous public lectures in various universities,
academic and cultural centers, and at public events and international
gatherings. One of his most enjoyable tasks is lecturing to and engaging
in dialogues with students.
In addition to hundreds of articles and reviews in Armenian, English
and French (some of which have been translated into Arabic, German,
Spanish and Swedish), His Holiness Aram I has written more than twenty
books.
The Ecumenist
He strengthened ecumenical relations and collaborations, by establishing
a special department for this work with a full-time director, developing
close personal relations with world church leaders, organizing important
ecumenical meetings and events, and chairing and lecturing at international
conferences and events in different regions.
He has maintained relationships on an international level with heads
of states, political and religious leaders, and representatives of international
organizations.
His Holiness recalls his earliest encounter with the Ecumenical Movement
with these words:
“My personal ecumenical journey began with The Week of Prayer
for Christian Unity, as a young seminarian at the Theological Seminary
of the Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia, in Antelias, Lebanon in the
early 1960s. For the first time in my life I came to witness how people
from different churches gather to pray and reflect together, and seek
together the unity of the church. This very fact of togetherness struck
me profoundly. It left a tremendous impact on my life at this early
stage of my theological formation. Simply, I fell in love with ecumenism,
with this ‘strange’ movement that brings people together
in one place and in all places. I started reading ecumenical periodicals
and books with great interest and followed the ecumenical news and developments.
When I was a student, ecumenism was for me a sort of academic interest.
After I was ordained as a minister, it became a way of life, a quality
of being Christian in the world today.”
Since that auspicious beginning, His Holiness has been active in inter-church
dialogue, relations, and collaborations. In 1972 he was appointed as
the Catholicosate’s representative for ecumenical relations. He
served in this position until 1995, and represented the Church at major
theological and ecumenical conferences, assemblies, and consultations
in different parts of the world.
His ecumenical involvement reached its zenith when in 1983 he was elected
to serve as a member of the Central Committee of the World Council of
Churches (WCC) at the Vancouver Assembly. This was followed by his election
as Moderator of the Central and Executive Committees at the Canberra
Assembly in 1991, the highest position of this global fellowship of
churches, which comprises more than 350 churches from different confessions,
cultures, nations and regions. He became the first Orthodox and the
youngest person to be elected to the position of Moderator. After serving
as Moderator for seven years, His Holiness was unanimously re-elected
at the Harare Assembly in 1998. The re-election of His Holiness, which
was based on his “strong leadership, firm commitment, theological
knowledge and administrative experience,” was unprecedented in
the history of the WCC.
As a strong supporter of inter-religious relations, dialogue and cooperation,
His Holiness has played a significant part in promoting common values,
mutual understanding and peaceful coexistence among religions.
Beyond the 1700th Anniversary
Having played a major role in the 1700th anniversary commemorations
in 2001, His Holiness looked beyond this anniversary towards a renewed
Armenian Church. He said:
“I believe that the Armenian Church cannot and should no longer
ignore the imperatives of the changing times. It must not only react;
it must become proactive. The Armenian Church must start a process of
renewal. This is no longer a question of choice; it has become an urgent
necessity. This is no longer an abstract or abstruse concept, but an
issue of existential nature and scope. In fact, renewal is a sine qua
non condition for any church that is committed to carry on its witness
responsibly and efficiently in the present world….
“The Armenian Church is facing critical questions, acute concerns
and multi-faceted problems. They must be addressed seriously and realistically
according to a clearly established agenda. The Church cannot wait in
a vacuum. It is already behind the times.”
Convinced that the Armenian Church will become a church of the Third
Millennium only through renewal, His Holiness’s focus and attention
is on this renewal as he begins the second decade of his Pontificate.
Without any doubt, his vision and commitment has made the Catholicosate
of Cilicia of the Armenian Church a living center of reflection, dialogue
and action. |
