Thanksgiving Prayer to celebrate the 18th Anniversary of the Consecration of Catholicos Aram I

June 2013

On Sunday, 16 June 2013, during the Holy Liturgy, a special thanksgiving prayer service was held to celebrate the 18th anniversary of the consecration of His Holiness Aram I as Catholicos of Cilicia. After the Biblical readings, Archbishop Sebouh Sarkissian, Prelate of Tehran, the celebrant of the day, described Catholicos Aram I as the shepherd who not only led the flock, but also gave worldwide visibility to the Catholicosate of Cilicia, carving a role for the Church on ecumenical, international and local levels. He then prayed for the Catholicos’ health and wished him long life on behalf of the clergy and laity.

At the end of the liturgy, the members of the clergy, members of the General Assembly and the faithful met at the Main Hall of the Catholicosate. His Holiness Aram I first distributed the awards to students who had won the school competitions in Armenian language, history and culture organized by the Khatchik Babikian Foundation; he then thanked everyone for the anniversary celebrations and said, “As servants of the Church, our journey of service is expressed in through different gifts and in different forms. However the essence of the journey of the Armenian clergy is “Christ’s way”.

Thanksgiving celebrations ended with the participants congratulating His Holinesss Aram I and receiving his blessing.

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