Armenian Church Factions Moving Closer

Taking a symbolic step toward reuniting the divided Armenian Apostolic Church worldwide, the top two patriarchs of the historic Armenian Christian faith will lead a worship service together Sunday during the Los Angeles visit of Armenian President Robert Kocharian.

Kocharian, elected in March as president of the nation formed in 1991 during the breakup of the Soviet Union, will arrive in Los Angeles today for a Century Plaza Hotel banquet honoring MGM owner Kirk Kirkorian for his long-term humanitarian aid to a country beset by earthquakes and political strife.

The divine liturgy Sunday morning at St. Peter Armenian Apostolic Church in Van Nuys will demonstrate the growing religious unity among Armenians living in the homeland and abroad, said Archbishop Vatche Hovsepian, the Burbank-based primate of the western U.S. diocese.

A half-century ago, as the Soviet Union curbed religious freedom and was at times suspected of controlling internal church affairs, some Armenian Apostolic churches abroad broke with the mother church and switched allegiance to the Lebanon-based See of Cilicia. Other churches remained loyal to church headquarters in Armenia.

But the Soviet collapse prompted attempts to repair that ecclesiastical division. Though talks have stalled over erasing separate institutional structures, good relations between the patriarchs, or catholicos, have eased the reconciliation, say church leaders.

On Sunday, when Aram I, catholicos for the See of Cilicia, celebrates the divine liturgy and Karekin I, catholicos of all Armenians, delivers the homily, it will mark the first time the two church leaders have led a joint service in the United States, Hovsepian said.

“This will create such a positive atmosphere and goodwill among our people,” the archbishop said. “We are looking forward to honest-to-goodness cooperation and eventually administrative unity.”

The church in Van Nuys holds only about 600 people, but another 1,400 are expected to watch the service on television monitors in other parts of the church complex.

Assisting the patriarchs in the liturgy will be Bishop Moushegh Mardirosian, who leads churches in the western United States under the See of Cilicia, and Hovsepian, whose western diocese is aligned with Karekin I and the historic Armenian church headquarters. Hovsepian’s diocese recently obtained Burbank city permission to rebuild part of its headquarters to include a cathedral.

Karekin I and Aram I will also appear with the Armenian president in a rally at the Universal Amphitheater at 6 p.m. Sunday, said Hovsepian. Kocharian will address the Los Angeles World Affairs Council on Monday night.