PRELATE WILL TRAVEL TO NORTH ANDOVER
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Photo taken during the divine liturgy on the occasion of the 2018 National Representatives Assembly in St. Gregory the Illuminator of Merrimack Valley.
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Continuing his schedule of official visits to every parish in the Eastern Prelacy, Archbishop Anoushavan will travel to St. Gregory Church of North Andover, Massachusetts this weekend, where on Sunday, January 27 he will celebrate the Divine Liturgy, deliver the sermon, and preside over the 49
th
anniversary celebration of the parish.
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EXPRESSION OF THANKS FOR CHRISTMAS CHARITY
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During the recent Christmas and New Year season, the Eastern Prelacy responded to an appeal received from Very Rev. F. Zareh Sarkissian, Director of the Christian Education Department of the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia to help provide food and gifts to needy families. The Prelacy immediately agreed to help and issued appeals in Crossroads and through social media. Many of you responded by sending generous donations for this purpose. Volunteer workers purchased the food and gifts and prepared the bags for personal delivery to families out of work, the elderly, the sick and handicapped.
This week Archbishop Anoushavan and the Executive Council received a letter from Hayr Zareh thanking the Prelacy and donors with the following message:
“It is with extreme gratitude and thankfulness that I write you this letter. Once again, I search for the appropriate words to convey my gratitude for this incredibly valuable act of kindness. I am writing to you to inform you that the charity project extending to more than 170 families has successfully ended. During this passing Christmas season, through your donation of 11,000 USD, you gave a spark of hope and happiness to those who are in need, which will indeed stand as a lasting tribute to your magnanimous hearts. This gesture is a true indicator of the commitment you have to the Word of God that will stand as a model for all. I speak for all of the colleagues and volunteers when I gratefully offer you our deepest and most heartfelt thanks. I pray that Christ our God will bestow His blessings and strength upon you and your families as well.
I look forward to your continuous support of the Department morally and financially through our future initiatives and undertakings. With all my gratitude and congratulations for our common accomplishment,
Prayerfully,
Very Rev. Fr. Zareh Sarkissian
Director General
Christian Education Department
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The Eastern Prelacy has presented the annual Musical Armenia concert since 1982, bringing many talented artists of Armenian descent into the limelight. This year’s concert that will take place at 2 pm, on Sunday, March 17, is the 36
th
concert in the series. The concert will feature Cara Pogossian, Viola; Edvard Pogossian, Cello; and Vatche Jambazian, Piano.
The program includes the music of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Komitas, Mirzoyan, Mansurian, and Spendiarian. The concert venue is Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, West 57
th
Street and Seventh Avenue in New York City. Tickets ($25) can be purchased at the Carnegie Hall Box office (212-247-7800); and at the Armenian Prelacy (212-689-7810).
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Bible Readings for Sunday, January 27, Second Sunday after Nativity
are: Isaiah 58:13-59:7; 1 Timothy 4:12-5:10; John 3:13-21.
“No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”
(John 3:13-21)
***
Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I arrive, give attention to the public reading of scripture, to exhorting, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you through prophecy with the laying on of hands by the council of elders. Put these things into practice, devote yourself to them, so that all may see your progress. Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; continue in these things, for in doing this you will save both yourself and your hearers.
Do not speak harshly to an older man, but speak to him as to a father, to younger men as brothers, to older women as mothers, to younger women as sisters—with absolute purity.
Honor widows who are really widows. If a widow has children or grandchildren they should first learn their religious duty to their own family and make some repayment to their parents; for this is pleasing in God’s sight. The real widow, left alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day; but the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives. Give these commands as well, so that they may be above reproach. And whoever does not provide for relatives, and especially for family members, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
(1 Timothy 4:12-5:10)
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HOLY FATHERS ATHANASIUS AND CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
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On Saturday, January 26, the Armenian Church commemorates the Holy Fathers Athanasius and Cyril.
Athanasius
is known as the “champion of orthodoxy,” and “Father of Orthodoxy.” He served as bishop of Alexandria for 45 years (17 years in exile). He attended the Council of Nicaea where he was regarded as a theological expert. He is respected and revered in the Armenian Church.
Cyril of Alexandria
succeeded his uncle, Theophilus, as patriarch of Alexandria in 412. He was a brilliant theologian in the Alexandrian tradition, and like Athanasius, is highly regarded by the Armenian Church. He presided over the third ecumenical council (Ephesus). He wrote treatises clarifying the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation, commentaries on the Gospels of John and Luke, dogmatic theology, and many letters and sermons.
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Also commemorated this week:
Monday, January 28: St. Macarius.
Tuesday, January 29: St. Andrew the Commander and his Soldiers.
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Archbishop Anoushavan presided over the Divine Liturgy celebrated by Rev. Fr. Hovnan Bozoian, pastor of Sts. Vartanantz Church in Ridgefield, New Jersey last Sunday. His Eminence delivered the Sermon.
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BIBLE STUDY IN NEW JERSEY
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Sts. Vartanantz Church in Ridgefield, New Jersey has announced the beginning of its Bible Study for 2019. The first class will take place tomorrow, Friday, January 25, and thereafter continue every Friday evening from 7:30 pm to 9 pm. Rev. Fr. Hovnan Bozoian, pastor, will lead the main topic of discussion that will focus on the Gospel of Matthew. Those interested in learning more about the Holy Scriptures and the Armenian Church are encouraged to attend. Coffee hour and fellowship will be offered each week after the Bible Study.
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PRELATE VISITS SUNDAY SCHOOL IN NEW JERSEY
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Archbishop Anoushavan paid a surprise visit to the eighth and ninth grade Sunday school students last Sunday at Sts. Vartanantz Church in Ridgefield, New Jersey. His Eminence entered the class as students were reading and discussing readings from the book of Ruth. The students went back in history and got a glimpse of Jesus’ ancestors. His Eminence’s reflection of the story of Ruth and Naomi’s bravery providing new insight for all. Seen in this photo, left to right, are: Neena Takvorian, Anna Tekeyan, Matthew Kalendar, His Eminence, and Aida Gharibian, superintendent of the Sunday school.
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Death of Shavarsh Missakian
(January 26, 1957)
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Shavarsh Missakian was a veteran journalist and political activist who played an important role both in the history of the Armenian press and the organization of the Diaspora.
He was born in August 1884, on the feast of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin, in the village of Zimara, near Sepastia (Sivas). He moved to Constantinople in 1890 with his family, where he studied at the Getronagan School, and became a journalist at the age of sixteen.
He started his career in the daily
Surhantag
(1899-1908)
.
During the early 1900s, in the last year of the tyrannical regime of Abdul Hamid II, he published and distributed revolutionary literature, and contributed to the journals
Droshak
(in Geneva) and
Razmig
(in Plovdiv, Bulgaria) of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, which he joined in 1907. After the restoration of the Ottoman Constitution in 1908, he published the literary weekly
Aztag,
with Zabel Essayan, Kegham Parseghian, and Vahram Tatoul from 1908-1909. He also founded a bookstore called Ardziv, which doubled as a publishing house.
In 1911-1912 Missakian settled in Garin (Erzerum) as the editor of the A.R.F. newspaper
Haratch.
Afterwards, he returned to Constantinople and became a member of the editorial board of the A.R.F. daily
Azatamart.
He initially escaped the arrest of Armenian intellectuals on the fateful night of April 24, 1915. He lived clandestinely until March 1916, heading a group of A.R.F. militants who had also escaped the arrests. He provided valuable information and articles to the journal
Hayastan
of Sofia (Bulgaria), published during 1915, about the ongoing Turkish repression and deportations. The Ottoman authorities could not locate him, and decided to deport his father to Konia, but the latter managed to escape. Shavarsh Missakian was denounced by a Bulgarian spy and arrested on March 26, 1916, when he tried to go to Bulgaria. He was imprisoned and tortured; he tried to escape by throwing himself from the third floor of the prison, but he broke his leg and was captured. He was condemned to death, but the sentence was commuted to five years of prison. In the end, he was freed after the armistice of Mudros on October 30, 1918.
He soon became the editor-in-chief of the daily
Djagadamart,
which replaced
Azatamart,
closed on April 24, 1915. In 1919 he traveled to Armenia, where he participated in the ninth General Assembly of the A.R.F. in Yerevan.
The impending advance of the Kemalist forces over Constantinople compelled many Armenians, including Missakian, to take the route of exile. In November 1922 he left the Ottoman capital and moved to Sofia, where he married Dirouhi Azarian (1891-1964), whom he had known when she worked as the bookkeeper for
Djagadamart.
In November 1924 he was sent to Paris, where he participated in the tenth General Assembly of the A.R.F. (November 1924-January 1925) and was elected a member of the party Bureau, a position that he held until 1933.
In August 1925 he launched the daily
Haratch
as a personal undertaking. The daily soon became the main voice of the Armenian community of France, with a circulation of 5,000 copies and the sought-after articles of its publisher and editor.
Haratch
became also a gathering place for the young generation of Armenian writers in the 1920s and 1930s that would be known as the “Paris boys.” It
appeared without interruption until the Nazi occupation of Paris, when Missakian decided to voluntarily close the newspaper in June 1940.
Haratch
was reopened in April 1945, after the Liberation. Eight months later, in an editorial of December 1945, Missakian coined
tseghasbanutiun,
the Armenian word for an almost unknown term, “genocide.” He would be one of its frequent users in the press. In the same year, the editor of
Haratch
would undertake the organization of the new generation with the foundation of the A.R.F.-affiliated “Nor Seround” (equivalent to the Armenian Youth Federation in North America) and its journal
Haiastan,
which continues its publication.
Shavarsh Missakian directed
Haratch
until the last day. He passed away on January 26, 1957, and was buried in the cemetery of Père-Lachaise. His daughter Arpik Missakian would succeed him in the direction of the journal, which she would publish for fifty-two more years, until May 2009, continuing her father’s traditions.
Missakian’s short memoir of his survival in the Ottoman prison,
Leaves from a Yellowish Journal,
was published in 1957, and a collection of his articles scattered in the Armenian press, entitled
Days and Hours,
in 1958. His memoir was translated into French by his daughter and published in 2015. A square named after him was inaugurated in the ninth
arrondisement
of Paris in 2007.
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THE SYRIAN ARMENIAN COMMUNITY
BEGINS TO REBUILD
The fighting and bombs have stopped. Now the difficult process of rebuilding has started.
Please continue to keep the Armenian community in Syria in your prayers and pocket books.
DONATIONS TO THE FUND FOR SYRIAN ARMENIAN RELIEF CAN BE MADE ON LINE.
AND SELECT SYRIAN ARMENIAN RELIEF IN THE MENU.
OR IF YOU PREFER YOU MAY MAIL YOUR DONATION TO:
Armenian Prelacy
138 E. 39
th
Street
New York, NY 10016
Checks payable to: Armenian Apostolic Church of America
(Memo: Syrian Armenian Relief)
Thank you for your help.
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DIGITIZING, CATALOGING, PRESERVING
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Our readers in the New York metropolitan area may want to attend the following event, sponsored by the Zohrab Information Center of the Armenian Diocese, 630 Second Avenue, New York City, 7 pm, on Thursday, January 31 in the Diocese’s Guild Hall.
Dr. Melissa Moreton, of the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library (HMML), will present the HMML’s digitization project and digital platform of digitized manuscripts, including many Armenian manuscripts. The collection includes over 5,000 Armenian manuscripts in digital and microfilm form from Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Europe. Dr. Moreton will introduce the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library, its ongoing digitization project, and demonstrate the use of the digital platform.
Hill Museum and Manuscript Library is located at St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. The Library’s mission is to identify, digitally photograph, catalog and archive endangered manuscripts belonging to threatened communities around the world. The Library’s goal is to have all of HMML’s digitized manuscripts available online, free of charge for registered users. For more information about the January 31
st
presentation at the Diocese, go the website of the Zohrab Information Center,
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NEW SERIES OF REFLECTIONS
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The Prelacy's popular weekly Reflections are back with new offerings for the New Year. If you missed the first two,
Click Here
now to visit the Weekly Reflections webpage and catch-up.
This week Archpriest Fr. Nerses Manoogian, pastor of Philadelphia's St. Gregory the Illuminator Church reflects on this Sunday's bible reading from the Gospel of John 3:16.
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We would love to know your thoughts about and suggestions for our weekly Crossroads electronic publication, and we have set up a special e-mail address for your comments. Write to us at
crossroads@armenianprelacy.org
.
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FROM THE EDITOR:
A CORRECTION FOR THE RECORD
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In last week’s Crossroads in the item about the recent retirement of Archpriest Fr. Aram Stepanian, we incorrectly identified the parish he served for most of his years of service to the Eastern Prelacy. It is, of course, Soorp Asdvadzadzin Church of Whitinsville, Massachusetts, not Holy Trinity Church. We became aware of the error shortly after “send-off,” and issued a corrected version. We make note of the correction here in print “for the record,” and with our apologies.
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SIAMANTO ACADEMY—
Meets every second Saturday of the month at the Hovnanian School, 817 River Road, New Milford, New Jersey. For information:
anec@armenianprelacy.org
or 212-689-7810.
January 26
—Screening of the Armenian movie, “The Line,” about the Artsakh War, Community Center of St. Gregory the Illuminator Church, Granite City, Illinois.
February 16
—Valentine’s Day Dinner Dance, sponsored by Armenian Relief Society New Jersey Shakeh Chapter; 8 pm at Assyrian Orthodox Church of Virgin Mary, 644 Paramus Road, Paramus, New Jersey. Entertainment by: Zareh Kasbarian and his band from Washington, DC; Sako Tashjian from Montreal, Canada; Garo Torossian from New Jersey; Keyboard by Maestro Vicken Makoushian. Net proceeds will benefit ARS programs and Sts. Vartanantz Church. Donation: $75. Appetizers, Dinner (catering by Sultan Cuisine); BYOB. For information and reservations: Maral Kaprielian (201-289-6486); Seta Asadurian (201-320-2859).
March 17
—Annual Musical Armenia concert sponsored by Eastern Prelacy, 2 pm, at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. Featured artists: Edvard Pogossian, cello; Cara Pogossian, viola; Vatche Jambazian, piano.
May 5
—60
th
anniversary of Sts. Vartanantz Church, Ridgefield, New Jersey. SAVE THE DATE.
October 9-12
—On the occasion of the Feast of the Holy Translators a clergy conference of the Eastern, Western, and Canadian Prelacies will convene in Montebello, California. Details will follow.
October 19
—Armenian Friends of America present the Annual Hye Kef 5 Dance, featuring The Vosbikians, at Double Tree by Hilton Hotel, Andover, Massachusetts. Tickets purchased before September 13 will include the Great Venue, Buffet, Vosbikian Band, and five Free raffle tickets. Adults $75; Students 21 and under $65. Specially priced AFA rooms available through September 17. For tickets and information contact: Sharke’ Der Apkarian at 978-808-0598; or John Arzigian at 603-560-3826. Also visit
www.ArmeniaFriendsofAmerica.org
.
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The Armenian Prelacy
Tel: 212-689-7810 ♦ Fax: 212-689-7168 ♦ Email: email@armenianprelacy.org
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