A Mass for Armenia’s Quake Dead : Commemoration: A year after 25,000 lost their lives, a community prays for the dead and has hope for the future.

Candles burned before paintings of Mary and the child Jesus. Sunlight streamed through the windows of the church, warmly anointing the wooden pews.

In the pews, rows of children bowed their heads. Many folded their hands and put them against their faces as they prayed and meditated.

The scene on Thursday morning was at the Forty Martyrs Armenian Apostolic Church in Santa Ana. The occasion was a Requiem Mass during which students at the church’s school prayed on the first anniversary of the earthquake in Soviet Armenia that killed more than 25,000 people.

“This earthquake was a terrible tragedy for us,” said the Very Rev. Moushegh Mardirossian, dean of the Armenian church, in an interview after the services. “Today the students prayed for the victims. The first part was collective prayer to God. The second part was a private prayer by our students, going to our lord Jesus Christ, and thinking how they could help our brothers and sisters in Armenia.”

The architecturally striking church at 5315 W. McFadden Ave. became the focal point of Orange County’s Armenian community on Thursday. From all over the county, adults and children of Armenian heritage came to the church to pray, and perhaps light candles, in memory of the earthquake tragedy in Armenia.

A tragedy closer to home, the Oct. 17 earthquake in the San Francisco Bay area, was also on the minds of the Armenian community, Mardirossian said.

“We are taking collections today and on Sunday, and the money will be divided for relief in Armenia and for the American Red Cross to use to help victims of the San Francisco earthquake,” the church dean said.

Mardirossian said that Orange County has more than 10,000 residents of Armenian heritage.

“This is the only Armenian church, and so they come from all over to attend services here,” he said. “We have about 10,000 to 15,000 Armenians living in this county, and about 1,500 live around the church area.”

On Thursday, the students of the Ari Guirago Minassian Armenian School, situated next to the church, attended the morning Mass, and the evening Requiem Mass was primarily attended by adults. During the day, the church remained open so that people could come in individually to pray. One who did so was Karine Hajian of Seal Beach, who knelt before a cluster of glowing candles, bowed her head and mourned for the earthquake victims in Armenia.

Sylvie Tertzakian of North Tustin said she and her husband, Dr. Garo Tertzakian, marked the day by “praying for the souls of those who died.”

Garo Tertzakian, a urologist, last year volunteered his medical services in Armenia and was among the first Americans to arrive in that country after the earthquake.

“I have a good feeling because a lot has been done in one year, despite the fact that relief work has not been as fast as we would like it to be,” Sylvie Tertzakian said. “Our feeling is positive, very positive. We are one people, and we feel very close together.”

Garo Agopian, a computer expert and IBM systems engineer who lives in Irvine, said he had returned Sunday from a two-week visit to Armenia.

“The Academy of Sciences of Armenia had invited three of us to look at the technical situation there and to make some recommendations,” Agopian said. “I talked to the students (at the church school in Santa Ana) about what I saw while I was there. I told them that, no, people are not living in tents, but some are living in metal and wood huts used as temporary housing. But construction is going on in a large scale, and the people are hopeful.

“I have a feeling of sadness today as I think about the earthquake, but I also have a feeling of encouragement because the people over there are really working hard to rebuild.”

Lily Merrigian, principal of the Armenian school, said the students were reminded on Thursday about the rich cultural heritage of Armenians.

“We want the students to have hope and optimism about the future,” she said. “We Armenians are a strong people. Armenia is more than 3,000 years old, and it has survived many tragedies. So we wanted the students to focus on the positive. There is a rebirth going on of those areas destroyed by the earthquake. We can be sad, as we remember, but we can be happy and full of hope.”

Mardirossian said, “Armenian people believe they will overcome all the tragedies because their belief and their traditions are strong. A year after the earthquake, we believe that from now on, everything will be better. And we certainly want to thank the American people for helping us.”