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Journey in Armenia

Agnès Adeline-Schaeffer

 

Translation Canon Tony Dickinson

 

Armenia is the first state to have adopted Christianity as its official religion. But others religions are also present in this country which has very close links with France.

 

I went to Armenia for the first time in April, 2015. Even though I had read up on the country, I had no idea of what I was going to discover. The reality went beyond the fiction. This country and its inhabitants compel admiration. They stand upright despite everything and everyone.

 

Despite everything, because the climate there is continental, hot and dry in summer, cold and snowbound in winter. It is subject to earthquakes. For example, the one in December, 1988 destroyed almost 60% of the town of Gumri, killing more than 50,000 people. Traces remain visible today: half the town is still in ruins. For 27 years, nearly 4,000 families have been in a precarious situation, awaiting re-location. They live in temporary homes, the “domik”, which little by little have become permanent.

 

Despite everyone, because this country was coveted by its neighbours: the former Ottoman and Russian Empires, then the former USSR, one of whose Republics it was, and the ancient Persian Empire. Independent only since 1991, following the collapse of the Soviet Communist Regime, Armenia is gradually training itself in the ways of republican democracy and peace, even if a twenty-year-old ceasefire is still sometimes violated between the Azeris and Nagorno-Karabakh.

 

The religion practiced in Armenia is considered the oldest form of Christianity. The Apostolic Armenian Church is an Oriental Church, Orthodox, Gregorian and autocephalous. It claims its title “Apostolic”, tracing its origins to the apostles Thaddaeus, a disciple of Christ, and Bartholomew.

It became the official religion of the Kingdom of Armenia in 301, when King Tiridates IV was converted by the witness and the example of St. Gregory the Illuminator. Numerous churches and as many monasteries embellish the Armenian countryside. The architecture is sober and symbolic. The building is square, with a central opening towards the height, through which the sky can be seen. The symbolism is as follows: there is no obstacle between God and the believer, who can receive his grace “directly”. There is also a stone platform, which accommodates an altar of modest size, behind which there is a curtain. When the priest officiates, he begins by setting himself right in relation to his sins, in prayer, with the curtain closed, alone with God. Forgiven, he opens the curtain and comes down to join the faithful, whom he accompanies in their request for forgiveness. When the service is over, the faithful leave the Church backwards to signify that nobody turns their back on the grace of God. People also leave backwards when they visit a Church and there is no service going on. This gesture is ancient and its meaning is today often ignored but it remains anchored in tradition to the point that non-believers adopt it.

 

Inside the Churches, there are no icons, or very few, but the walls are decorated with the Katchkar, a sort of memorial stone, whose height can vary between 1.5 and 2 metres, most often rectangular; it is decorated with one or more carved crosses, with an unbelievably fine, precise ornamentation depicting either human figures or inscriptions. They embody the Christology of the Apostolic Armenian Church with a tree of life: what matters is not the death of Christ, but his resurrection, or his divine nature. It is something specific to Armenian art, present, in the past, throughout the territory and preserved today in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

 

In the 19th century another Christian Church came into being: the Evangelical Armenian Church. Arising from the activity of Protestant missionaries, this Church defines itself through a return to the Bible, putting the accent on salvation by grace in Jesus Christ, the necessity of new birth, repentance and obedience to the words of the Gospel, leading to personal profession of faith. The Bible, translated from classical Armenian into the modern language, was in this way made accessible to all the people. Opposed by the religious authorities of the time, the supporters of the Reform were excommunicated by decision of the patriarch of the Apostolic Armenian Church in Constantinople. Forced by Ottoman law to constitute themselves as a separate Church, they complied, creating on the 1st July 1846, the Evangelical Armenian Church. On the eve of the genocide of 1915, this Church had a membership of more than 51,000. In 1920 there remained no more than 14,000. These, forced into exile, then formed new Churches in the majority of the countries where they were welcomed. This Church is currently very much a minority in Armenia but is in dialogue with the Apostolic Church.

 

Other religious minorities exist in Armenia. There are about 80,000 Yezidis; they are for the most part stockbreeders. They are encountered in the summer on the upper slopes of Mount Aragats, where they lead their animals to pasture, living for several months in tents. Their worship is neither Christian nor Muslim but solar, like that of the Zoroastrians, and has deep roots in ancient Iran. At Yerevan, Muslims can meet in the “Blue Mosque”, built in 1765-1766 under the rule of the Khan of Yerevan, Hussain Ali. Transformed into a planetarium under the Soviet regime, it has today recovered its original function and is primarily visited by neighbouring Iranians. In Yerevan there is also a Jewish minority of about 1,000, as well as a Roman Catholic minority, principally at Gumri, admirably represented today by a community of sisters.

 

A very old friendship unites France and Armenia and cultural, humanitarian and ecumenical journeys there are regularly organised.

 

 

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a été pasteur à Amsterdam et en Région parisienne. Il s’est toujours intéressé à la présence de l’Évangile aux marges de l’Église. Il anime depuis 17 ans le site Internet Protestants dans la ville.

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