Seta's Armenian Blog

Thursday, 23 January 2014

I was horrified when I saw this picture!

No doubt there are lots more of these images floating around....

I wonder what they are saying...

'Look how many of us they have killed'...

Or

Look how many WE have slaughtered.

Oxford Armenian Studies - Lecture Series:Armenian Religion, Society, Politics

Michaelmas Term 2013

Dr Hratch Tchilingirian, Oriental Institute

Tues. 28 January 2014 (Week 2), 6:30-8:00 pm, The Oriental Institute, Lecture Room 1

CHURCH AND STATE RELATIONS

This is the fifth lecture in the lecture series on Armenian Religion, Society, Politics, which will focus on Church and State relations since Armenia's independence. Despite expectations that the Church would be free of state influence in non-Communist Armenia, Church-State relations have been problematic. The discussion will focus on the process of how the Church was 'rehabilitated', the mutual exploitation of each institution of the other, and some of the main legal and political conflicts in Church-State relations in Armenia today.

Tues. 11 February 2014 (Week 4), 6:30-8:00 pm, The Oriental Institute, Lecture Room 1

CHURCH AND SOCIETY RELATIONS

This lecture will discuss the unprecedented processes of rapid and long-term transitions in virtually all aspects of life in post-Soviet Armenia — social, political, economic, religious, cultural. Like in other former Soviet republics, the old socio-political boundaries changed in Armenia: a process of social relocation and strengthening of old identity references were quickly in place. Even as the Church was expected to provide much-needed guidance in filling the ideological and spiritual gap left behind by the failure of the Communist ideology, the Church was ill-prepared — in terms of human and material resources — to respond to the growing interest of people in religion and spirituality.

Tues. 25 February (Week 6), 6:30-8:00 pm, The Oriental Institute, Lecture Room 1

DIASPORA POLITICS AND THE ARMENIAN CHURCH

More Armenians live outside the Republic of Armenia than inside. For centuries communities in dispersion have been a source of human and financial wealth, prestige, power and political influence for the Armenian Church. This lecture will focus on church and politics in the Diaspora, especially during the Cold War era and its effects on contemporary church-society relations. Besides the Catholicosate of All Armenians in Ejmiatsin, three of the four Hierarchical Sees of the Armenian Church are located in the Diaspora (Lebanon, Israel/Palestine, Turkey) with their own monastic orders, churches and dioceses. Politics and power relations in the Church continue to present many challenges to communities in the Diaspora today.

Tues. 11 March (Week 8), 6:30-8:00 pm, The Oriental Institute, Lecture Room 1

CHURCH AND RELIGION IN THE DIASPORA: MIDDLE EAST, EUROPE, NORTH AMERICA

This final lecture will focus on issues peculiar to the Diaspora communities and the existing problems in church-politics-society relations. Even as the Armenian Church’s impact on individual religiosity in Armenia is minimal, the role and function of the church in the geographically dispersed communities of the diaspora is more complex and multilayered. It will conclude with some thoughts on the future prospects in the Diaspora and how in various parts of the world priorities and processes defer in response to local/regional conditions.


	For further details about these lecture series please contact Dr Hratch Tchilingirian: hratch.tchilingirian@orinst.ox.ac.uk or Prof. Theo van Lint, Calouste Gulbenkian Professor of Armenian Studies: theo.vanlint@orinst.ox.ac.uk Oxford Armenian Studies University of Oxford The Oriental Institute Pusey Lane Oxford, OX1 2LE

FATHER FRANK’S RANTS - To Be or Not to Be

Rant Number 570 23 January 2014

There was once a baby about to be born. However, the story goes, as he poked his tiny head out of the warmth and security of his mother’s womb the baby took a good, inquisitive glance at the world into which he was emerging. You know what? What he saw gave him such a fright that he rushed back the maternal womb!
To be or not to be? That baby made a clear choice. And an informed one at that. The sights he glimpsed were just too horrid. ‘Why should I enter life, come to be into such a hell?’ So he chose to remain unborn. Not to be.
What things would have put him off the boon of life? Had he been a Syrian child his decision might perhaps make sense. Consider the slaughtered innocent, the beheaded prisoners, the tortured victims, the cursed, bombed out towns, the ruined landscape. The grim, squalid refugee villages. Also on almost all sides fanaticism, cruelty, sadism, fear, hatred, even worse, the callous indifference…Would any sensible child really desire to be born into the mayhem, the disaster that is Syria? Would you blame him if he did not? If he preferred not to be? Non- existence to existence in such conditions?
‘But poor Syria is an extreme case. Not all of God’s earth is like that. Britain, for example – a blessed, free and prosperous land?’
It depends. For one thing, the baby might not have any choice in happy Ukania. Someone else may choose non-existence for him, whether he likes it or not. In 2011 alone, 196.082 abortions took place in England and Wales. Had he been among those…too bad. Apart from contraceptives, of course – tricky matter there – non-existence is decided well before the chance to exist – different set of problem. Oh, well, as the hypothetical kid would never peep out of mummy’s womb, the knotty existential question arises not.
Mind, this baby is not a life-hater. He is a bit of an empiricist. A sharp observer. It is some circumstances of life that frighten him, not life itself. Not unlike Hamlet. The Dane’s dilemma – to be or not to be – spells it out. Human life’s evils, Shakespeare opines, include: ‘…the whips and scorns of time, the oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, the pangs of disprized love, the law’s delay, the insolence of office’ and so on. Old age, injustice, tyranny, abuse by the powerful, unrequited love, social wrongs of all kinds – sounds familiar? Hamlet confesses the list depresses him so much that he would sooner choose not to exist – kill himself – than to exist, was it not for his ‘dread of something after death’. Maybe the same or similar ills put off our far-sighted baby from being born, who knows?
This child however is no existential, tragic hero like Hamlet. Nor would he agree with that line by Spanish poet Calderon: ‘Pues el delito mayor del hombre es haber nacido’ – to have been born, that is man’s greatest crime. Schopenhauer quoted that with glee. For the great pessimist, not just particular sins made life insufferable but life itself, in its essence, was a sin. Maybe same Eastern religions concur with that. By contrast, that is a view which no Christian could ever uphold. This is God’s world and man – made in God’s image – belongs here. And it is for the sake of humanity that God sent his only Son into the world, not to damn it but to save it. Thus for a follower of Christ hatred of life per se is a blasphemy, a theological absurdity.
I suppose it would be deemed a very churlish, unsocial and sour child who disliked the jolly spectacle offered by contemporary British society. Still, what if his mum lived in some South London unlovely council estate? Such as portrayed in Daniel Barber’s 2009 movie starring Michael Caine, Harry Brown. A broken society? That would be understatement. It is a Hobbesian state of nature world, where life seems nasty, brutish and short. Where man is wolf to man. So the baby looks out into a grim universe of run-down tower blocks, sin-bin housing, graffiti-defaced walls and dirty, rubbish strewn landings and alleyways, haunted by feral youths. Where stabbings, robberies, assaults, rapes, shootings and drug-dealing are a matter of course. And where the old, the weak and the vulnerable crouch in their poky flats in daily fear. He sees places with names like Peckham, Streatham, Brixton, New Cross, Hackney, Bethnal Green…A veritable jungle a wonderful, proud, parliamentary liberal democracy has created.
All right. It is a narrow, exaggerated viewpoint. And Harry Brown is only a film (though it has the ring of truth). Not all of Britain is like that. The baby could well view a very different landscape. And people could be far removed from the movie’s sick, twilight creatures. They could be better off, sure. Like the rutting, fornicating, hedonistic youth you see getting stoned and drugged in town centres at week-ends. That sight would only offend a very moralistic and puritanical baby, eh? May the Lord deliver such from such a judgmental boy! Nor would the mobs that only three years ago devastated, looted and set fire to the same town centres justify any right-thinking child from wanting to be born. To be fair, he would also behold a harmonious, multi-coloured rainbow nation. That is something anyone would be glad to begin his life into, no doubt.
That fussy baby the priest learns of in a passage by an obscure Austrian Catholic preacher of two centuries ago. A pre-modern, rural, more traditional world. The evils the lad would have discerned outside the womb were both different and the same today – because human nature does not change. The point of the image for a preacher however is the same. To reject indifference, laziness and fatalism. To pretend that you can’t do anything about human suffering. That children must go on being afraid of being born. Instead, evils must be fought, minimised and ultimately overcome. As Jesus Christ fought long ago, so his servants must fight the good fight to be – with all their might.
Revd Frank Julian Gelli

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Copyright © Revd Frank Gelli

Oxford Armenian Studies - Armenian Religion, Society, Politics

Michaelmas Term 2013

Dr Hratch Tchilingirian, Oriental Institute

Tues. 28 January 2014 (Week 2), 6:30-8:00 pm, The Oriental Institute, Lecture Room 1

CHURCH AND STATE RELATIONS

Tues. 11 February 2014 (Week 4), 6:30-8:00 pm, The Oriental Institute, Lecture Room 1

CHURCH AND SOCIETY RELATIONS

Tues. 25 February (Week 6), 6:30-8:00 pm, The Oriental Institute, Lecture Room 1

DIASPORA POLITICS AND THE ARMENIAN CHURCH

Tues. 11 March (Week 8), 6:30-8:00 pm, The Oriental Institute, Lecture Room 1

CHURCH AND RELIGION IN THE DIASPORA: MIDDLE EAST, EUROPE, NORTH AMERICA


	For further details about these lecture series please contact Dr Hratch Tchilingirian: hratch.tchilingirian@orinst.ox.ac.uk or Prof. Theo van Lint, Calouste Gulbenkian Professor of Armenian Studies: theo.vanlint@orinst.ox.ac.uk Oxford Armenian Studies University of Oxford The Oriental Institute Pusey Lane Oxford, OX1 2LE

Wednesday, 22 January 2014

Issue 3 - Vol 5 - DIOCESE OF THE ARMENIAN CHURCH OF THE UNITED KINGDOM AND THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND

ԱՌԱՋՆՈՐԴՈՒԹԻՒՆ.ՀԱՅՈՑ.ՄԵԾՆ.ԲՐԻԴԱՆԻՈՅ.ԵՒ.ԻՐԼԱՆՏԱՅԻ

Տ.Վահան.Եպս..Յովհաննէսեան,.Հայրապետական.Պատուիրակ.եւ.Առաջնորդ The Right Revd Bishop Vahan Hovhanessian, Primate and Pontifical Legate

Issue3, Volume 5 18 January, 2014

FIRST CELEBRATION OF BAPTISM OF THE LORD IN DUBLIN

The Parish of the Armenian Church in Dublin, Ireland, had the first celebration of the Baptism of the Lord and the Blessing of the Water Services as part of the festivities of Theophany, last Sunday, 12 January. Bp Vahan Hovhanessian, Primate, presided over the services assisted by Altar Server Hovik. Participating in the services were members of the Parish Council who sang in the choir and chairman, and Dr Paul Manook, who read the scripture lesson of the day. The community had selected two Sunday School students, Albert Shahumyan and Carlo Malkhasian, to serve as the God father of baptism, recalling the biblical narrative of the baptism of our Lord by John the Baptist. Church services were followed by a lecture by Bp Vahan concerning the origins and meaning of Badarak and followed by a light dinner. The Bishop then joined the Dublin Church Council members to participate in a regular meeting of the council. Congratulation Dublin Armenians and God bless you and your families.

WELCOME VERY REVD FR AREN SHAHEENIAN

It is with thanksgiving to the Lord and great joy that the Primate‟s Office announces the arrival of the Very Revd Fr Aren Shaheenian to the Armenian Church of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, responding to the request of our Primate, HG Bp Vahan Hovhanessian, have designated Fr Aren to our Diocese. Born in Baghdad, Iraq, Fr Aren graduated from the University of Technology, and continued his theological climaxing with a PhD in Theology From the PIO in Italy. Click here to read Fr Aren‟s brief resume. Fr Aren will accompany Bishop Vahan to visit the Armenian Church communities in the UK and Ireland to meet with our faithful and for Fr Aren to learn more about the ministry and administration of our church. Welcome Fr Aren. May the Lord bless you and grant you successful ministry among our people here in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

SECOND ORTHODOX EDUCATION DAY

Our Lord emphasized teaching the Gospel and witnessing to it, as one of the main aspects of the Church‟s ministry worldwide. Based on this, the Council of the Oriental Orthodox Church (COOC) in the UK and Ireland created the Orthodox Education Day, to focus on various aspects of the teaching and living of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our parishes and communities. This year‟s theme was “The Extra Biblical Sources of Our Faith.” Following registration and breakfast, the Education Day started with the Morning Service according to the Armenian Church Traditions followed a the welcoming remarks of HG Bp Vahan Hovhanessian, President of COOC. The four speakers elaborated on different aspects of the Holy Tradition of the Church including a general introduction to Church Tradition by Abba Seraphim; Church Councils by Fr Peter Farrington, Armenian Church Hymnography by Bp Vahan, and Church Canons by Deacon Daniel Maylon. A Q&A period followed each lecture. Click here for more info about COOC.

BIRMINGHAM ARMENIANS CELEBRATE CHRIST’S BAPTISM

On Saturday, January 11, 2014 (the 6th day of the Theophany Octave „ԾննդեանՈւթօրեք‟) the

offered which contemplated on the Incarnation of Christ.

Armenian Community of Birmingham gathered in the Church of St. John, Spark Hill, for a joyful

and festive celebration of the glorious Nativity. After a brief rehearsal with the children, Fr.

Garegin Hambardzumyan led a traditional service of the Blessing of Water which symbolizes

Christ‟s Baptism. Accompanying Fr. Garegin was Dn. Artur Bobikyan from Manchester. Upon

the end of the Service the Children of the mission parish distributed blessed water to the

members of the community greeting them by saying “Christ is Born and Revealed”. In his

sermon Fr. Garegin stressed the necessity of constant prayer and of dedication to Jesus Christ‟s

eternal mission: „Let us pray so that the consumption of the Blessed Water be for us a renewal of

our Baptismal commitment to be the tools of God (1 Cor. 1:26-31), to be light where there is no

light and to be hope where there is no hope‟. Following the Service a Bible Study session was

“NEW DIRECTIONS” - A TALK BY DRRAZMIKPANOSSIAN

The Programme of Armenian Studies is delighted to announce the first event and lecture of 2014. Our guest is Dr RazmikPanossian, Director of the Armenian Communities Department of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, who will deliver a lecture titled New Directions: The 5-Year Plan ofthe Armenian Communities Department at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. This event will take place on Thursday 23 January, 7pm, at Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation London Branch, 50 Hoxton Square, London N1 6PB. Dr.RazmikPanossian holds a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he also taught. He has published widely on Armenian-related issues, including a critically acclaimed book on Armenian national identity. He has worked for the United Nations Development Programme. He is fluent in English, French and Armenian.

ST SARKIS PARISH CAKE SALE AND BRICK-A-BRAC

The St Sarkis Church Parish Council is holding a Cake Sake and Bric-a-Brac on Sunday 26th January to raise funds for the Syrian Armenian Relief Fund. If you have any unwanted gifts from Christmas or any good quality unwanted bric-a-brac, the Parish Council kindly ask that you donate such items for the sale. Also, the Parish Council is looking for talented bakers who are willing to donate some cakes for the sale. Those who are interested in making gift and cake donations please contact the St Sarkis Church Parish Council by email: stsarkisparish@armenianchurch.co.uk or tel: 020 7937 0152. Most importantly please join us on Sunday, 26 January and support our effort in raising funds to help our brothers and sisters in Syria. For an electronic copy of the flyer please click here.

ARMENIAN PAVILION 2014

We are happy to inform our faithful that the Armenian Pavilion stand will again participate in this year‟sLondon Book Fair, to be held from April 8-10, 2014. The Armenian Pavilion first participated in the London Book Fair in 2013, and featured a rich collection of books on art, history, literature, children‟s themes, and religion. Publishers from both the Homeland and the Armenian Diaspora introduced their books alongside authors Rouben Galichian, Noune Sarkisian, and Nouritsa Matossian. The stand also featured a unique Facsimile copy (reprint) of the 16th-century “Urbatagirk” by the first Armenian publisher, Hagop Meghapart, presented by the publishing house Edit Print. It is due to this success that the community has decided to repeat the event in 2014, and has already secured the space in Hall 2 at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre in Central London, where the 2014 London Book Fair will take place. Click here for more info about the London Book Fair.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:  THEOPHANIA: Music from the oldest Christian civilizations: Armenian, Coptic, Greek, Roman Catholic, Syrian &

others. 25 January, 7:00pm @ the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of St Sophia, Moscow Road, Bayswater, London W2 4LQ.  BADARAK COURSE: As part of the Continuing Education Ministry of the Primate’s Office, HG Bp Vahan Hovhanessian will be offering a course on the theology and spirituality of our Divine Liturgy, Badarak, on Monday evenings starting Monday, 17 February. The course will meet in the St Sarkis Church, Monday evenings at 7:00pm, and is offered free of charge. Registered members will receive printed notes of each session. Make an effort to join us and ask all the questions you wanted to ask about this central celebration of our faith. Those interested to sign up for the

course are requested to contact the Primate‟s Office via e-mail or telephone: 0208 127 8364.  FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS: The Primate’s Office has prepared a list of Frequently Asked Questions, about

the church administration which is published in a document accessible by clicking here. More Qs are welcome.  ST SARKIS PARISH DONATES TO PHILIPPINES RELIEF: Following the Primate‟s directive in December for a Diocesan-wide fund raising for the Philippines, the St Sarkis Church Parish raised £160.83 during the plate collection on Sunday 15th December. The St Sarkis Church Parish Council has decided to double the figure raised and increase the

total amount to be donated to the Philippines Relief Fund to £321.66.

The Primate’s Office, HyeDoon, 25 Cheniston Gardens, Kensington, London W8 6TG – 0208 127 8364 – primatesoffice@armenianchurch.co.uk