Bishops’ Synod in progress at Echmiadzin: Important issues for the Armenian Church on the agenda
Gayane Mkrtchyan
ArmeniaNow reporter- 25/9/13
The first Bishops’ Synod of the Armenian Church, which commenced Tuesday at the Mother See of Holy Echmiadzin after a six century-long interval, has two main subjects on the agenda – canonization of the Armenian Genocide victims and the package on the Baptism ceremonial rite.
The Synod has brought together 62 archbishops and bishops from the dioceses in Armenia and all over the world and is presided by His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians and His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia. It is for the first time that the synod is held with the participation of high-ranking clergymen from both the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin and the Great House of Cilicia.
Touching upon a number of theological and ecclesiastical issues, Aram I said that if the Church is not repaired it will turn into a museum, and the restoration of the Church has to start with the rite, because rites have a key role in all the areas, spheres and expressions of the Church, including the theological thought and doctrines.
“Building a church is important, becoming a church is much more important. We have to preserve the traditions, but not idolize traditions. We have to repair our traditions and shape in such a manner that they harmoniously blend with the reality at present,” said the Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia.
His Holiness Karekin II in his opening address stressed that the heavy political circumstances which have created hardship for the Armenian people, as well as the natural disasters, massacres, pogroms and the genocide, the Soviet years of atheism have not allowed making necessary efforts aimed at improving the church.
“The tense relations formed between the All Armenian Catholicate and the Great House of Cilicia in the years of Soviet leadership, which led to split and administrative division, became another hindrance to the reform process. Today our motherland is independent, the Church is free to function and has broad opportunities to carry out reforms,” he said.
Back in 2001, when the Armenian Christian word was celebrating the 1700th anniversary of adopting Christianity as a state religion, Karekin II’s speech was again aimed at alleviation of the tension between the Catholicoses of All Armenians and the Great House of Cilicia. His Holiness then stressed the need to rectify the historic distortions and compulsions of respective times. He called to take the restoration and reform of the Armenian Church by resolving all the past and existing disagreement between the two. The same year on September 22, during the holy chrism-blessing ceremony when some of it was brought from Great House of Cilicia and mixed together, Aram I, in his turn, said that by its chrism (which is made by a special ceremony at the Mother See and then distributed to all the dioceses of the Armenian Apostolic Church), its mission, its service and its people there is only one single Armenian Church.
The relations aggravated again in the second half of 2003, when Karekin II criticized the House of Cilicia for the decision to open a diocese in Canada, calling it anti-canonic.
Some positive shift happened on March 4-5 of 2005, during the advisory congregation of the delegations from All Armenian Catholicate and the Great House of Cilicia in Echmiadzin. In September of 2006, Aram I during his visit to Armenia to take part in the second Armenia-Diaspora conference, also visited Echmiadzin.
In his opening speech yesterday Aram I said that the road to success starts from self-criticism.
“We have to possess the courage to see our wounds and feel our pain in their true light. However, dear Holy Fathers, along with it we have to respect the reality. Eliminating the deep-rooted shortcomings inside the ceremonial life of the Armenian Church as well as repairing the old takes a long, hard and persistent work,” he said.
The Synod will continue till September 27.
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