Church Keeps a Foot in Past, Eye on Future

Most parishioners at St. Mary Armenian Apostolic Church in Costa Mesa stroll in late to services, which are just shy of three hours long and are conducted in Armenian.

Voices of the church’s choir echo in the dark sanctuary, a space filled with incense, chandeliers, looming murals and stained glass.

Churches such as St. Mary are cultural and spiritual homes for many in Orange County’s 10,000-plus Armenian American population. But some parishioners worry about the future of the church, with its lengthy services and rigid traditions.

“This church has to be modernized,” said parishioner Jean Barsam. “The young people just don’t come any more.”

This concern has fueled extra efforts to recruit and attract young members to the church, which has more than 200 members and operates on a $150,000 annual budget.

The campaign has been successful so far, said Archbishop Vatche Hovsepian, primate of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America, which covers 13 Western states.

“We have a fantastic sports program at St. Mary and great educational programs,” he said. “Every function we have, we make sure the young people are involved in the planning.”

The Armenian Church Youth Organization at St. Mary sponsors weekly meetings with dances, carwashes for fund-raising, dinners with Armenian food, presentations on famous Armenians and volleyball leagues and basketball tournaments.

“It used to be only 10 to 15 people in the youth group,” said Sarkis Karakesisoglu, 19, who has been a member of the youth group for over six years and is now vice chairman. “But this year, it’s blown up to about 60 kids. It’s out of control.”

For all of that success, however, many of those young people don’t attend Sunday services. Even Karakesisoglu.

“I don’t understand it very well,” he said of the service, despite an English translation provided in pew prayer books. “As we get older, then it will start getting more important to us. Now, I’d rather sleep in.”

Sara Megurian, 20, attends church regularly because she teaches in the Sunday school program.

“Lots of people my age want something more contemporary and upbeat,” she said. “Young people actually do belong to the church, but they just don’t come on Sunday.”

The first Armenian church in Orange County, Forty Martyrs Armenian Apostolic Church in Santa Ana, opened 14 years ago and now has 350 members. Unlike St. Mary, Forty Martyrs does not sponsor a youth group, but, instead, has a political organization for the kids called the Armenian Youth Federation that meets outside the church.

*

The Armenian church is considered by many historians to be the oldest Christian church, with the official conversion of Armenian King Tiridates to Christianity in 301 A.D., making next year the church’s 1,700th anniversary.

The long history of the church is part of its appeal to many of the immigrant churchgoers.

“Going to church makes me stronger,” said Bedo Cumcem, a member of the St. Mary parish board who grew up in Armenia and now lives in Irvine. “I love the Armenian culture.”

Although St. Mary is making strides to attract and retain younger people, church leaders also don’t want to alienate their older parishioners.

“We try to maintain the balance between the old and the new,” said Father Moushegh Tashjian. “Some need traditions and some need new challenges. We try to provide spiritual guidance for all segments of our parish.”

Church officials say that rooting services in tradition is part of the fight to not assimilate into America by retaining the flavor and heritage of Armenian culture.

“I’m not worried about the future of the church,” said Tashjian. “We have gone through so many upheavals and somehow the Armenian church has survived all these years.”

Karakesisoglu, now a freshman at Orange Coast College, figures he’ll attend even more religiously once he’s married and has children of his own.

“My parents have done a good job of keeping me involved,” he said. “My heart will always be at the Armenian church.”