Armenian Lighthouse Charitable Foundation Completes Chapel for Religious Services

30/12/12

LONG BEACH, Calif. and PTGHUNK, Armenia — Zuhrab and Seta Ghazarian, the founders of the Armenian Lighthouse Charitable Foundation (ALCF), the organization formerly known as Paros “Lighthouse” Charitable Foundation, funded and recently completed the construction of a chapel adjacent to the ALCF center. The chapel was consecrated and named Soorp Mariam Asdvadzadzin (St. Mary Church). More than 150 supporters, members of the clergy and friends attended the October consecration, joining and honoring the chapel’s benefactors, Zuhrab and Seta Ghazarian of California. Constructed of tuff and basalt stone, the chapel was built by workers from the surrounding villages of Ptghunk and Musaler.

ALCF Founder Seta Ghazarian states, “It was a wish in the heart of both myself and my husband, Zuhrab, to give back to Our Lord Jesus Christ in gratitude for all He has given us in our lives. The chapel has always been part of our plan for the local community.”

Following the consecration, the first official service held in the chapel was a wedding ceremony. The bride was a resident of Myradoon, the ALCF’s women and children’s shelter, who became a resident with her 2-year-old son when she and her husband became estranged. After living in Myradoon for five months, receiving job training in cosmetology and undergoing marriage counseling, the wife and husband were reunited in marriage in the chapel. This ceremony carried special meaning for the couple because their initial union took place without official documentation from the government or the Armenian Church. Since opening Myradoon in 2011, ALCF has reunited approximately 80 percent of its married residents with their husbands, fulfilling one of the most impairtant tenets of the ALCF’s mission: preserving the sanctity of the Armenian family.