Worshipers End Wandering

The smell of incense permeated the church as Father Stepanos Dingilian, wearing a silver-and-blue robe, presided over the service. After the choir sang haunting hymns in Armenian, Dingilian, speaking English, gave a sermon about faith.

The message seemed appropriate. After nearly 30 years of saving and start-and-stop efforts, the small congregation of the Armenian Apostolic Church of the Desert is finally going to have a home of its own, Riverside County’s only Armenian church.

“This was a test for us,” said parish council member Alice Safoyan, 78. “We learned the hard way how to do it.”

For years the congregation met at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church -- where Dingilian presided as visiting priest -- but the church’s 50 registered families will soon leave St. Margaret’s behind.

After almost three decades of dinners, galas and open pleas for money, the congregation’s meeting hall is finished and the church is being built.

Final permits must be obtained before the meeting hall in Rancho Mirage can be used for the congregation’s first service Dec. 19, said George Kirkjan, chairman of the parish council. A dedication and fundraiser weekend for the church building is scheduled Jan. 29 and 30.

Kirkjan, 69, a date grower originally from Los Angeles, spent the last 27 years in the desert and has long looked forward to the opening of an Armenian church.

“At the beginning, we had big ideas but not a lot of money raised,” he said.

Over the years, the congregation raised $1.3 million, but there’s still some work to do -- to the tune of $1 million more to finish the church, which is modeled on the larger St. Hripsime Church at Echmiadzin in Armenia, built in the 7th century.

The Armenian Apostolic Church of the Desert is part of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America, an Eastern Orthodox church.

The congregation began using the Episcopal church in 1977 for a monthly afternoon service during the Coachella Valley’s cooler months. The practice continued for decades while the parish council debated building a church. When not meeting at St. Margaret’s, worshipers drove to Orange County or Los Angeles for services.

Although Southern California’s Armenian population is estimated to be 300,000 to 400,000, only about 120 Armenian families live in the Coachella Valley, Dingilian said.

It was important to build the meeting hall before the church, members said, because religious services can be held in a meeting hall, but some events, such as dinners and receptions, can only rarely be held in a church.

Hovak Najarian, 73, a member of the church choir and resident historian, said that after a few years serving on the parish council, he noticed that some of the initial enthusiasm for building a church began to dwindle.

“Some of the old-timers had died and nothing was happening,” said Najarian, who was appointed to the council in 1979. “There were a lot of people not so sure we should be building a church because of its upkeep.”

Some said they should continue to have their services at St. Margaret’s. One member wearily suggested taking everyone on a cruise with the money that had been raised, he said.

The congregation’s relationship with St. Margaret’s was partly forged by Najarian, who is also a member of the Episcopal congregation. He grew up in Florida and, because there were no Armenian churches around, became an Episcopalian.

“I didn’t grow up with Armenians. The only ones I knew were my parents,” explained Najarian, a slim man with silver hair and twinkling blue-gray eyes. “[My parents] came here to have a place to worship and not be persecuted, and I feel like I almost owe it to them to keep this going.”

Building the new church, he said, allows him to honor and share his Armenian heritage.

In 1982, council member Ara Herbekian found and negotiated the purchase of about five acres in Palm Desert for an Armenian Apostolic Church, but the recession of the 1980s limited donations and virtually halted construction.

By 1999, the original land couldn’t be used because the city, citing traffic concerns, would not allow the project to proceed. The land was sold for close to $300,000, which helped the parish council purchase 4.6 acres in Rancho Mirage. Today, that land would sell for three times the amount, said Shirley Adams, realtor with Tarbell, Realtors in Indio.

“The timing was perfect,” said council member Rita Walden, 70, of Indian Wells.

Walden, who heads church fundraising, said raising money helped the council avoid borrowing.

Mailings to Armenian families across the nation raised $20,000, and Armenian Americans from the Los Angeles area also contributed to the church fund.

“Our feeling was that by building the church, it would become the heart of our Armenian community here,” Walden explained.

At the new meeting hall, landscaping pays homage to many Armenians’ agricultural roots in the Coachella Valley, with date palms and citrus trees framing the drive.

Although city permits, a new security system and dust control caused some financial hiccups for the congregation, many believe that the church building -- now little more than a foundation and underground wiring -- could be completed as early as 2006.

“I have no doubt in my mind it will be finished and it will be beautiful,” Safoyan said.