“Virgin and Child,” 19
th
century carpet from the Museum of the Holy See of Cilicia
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Քրիստոս ծնաւ եւ յայտնեցաւ
Օրհնեալ է յայտնութիւնն Քրիստոսի
Krisdos Dzunav yev haydnetsav
Orhnyal eh haydnootyoonun Krisdosi
Christ is born and revealed
Blessed is the revelation of Christ
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PRELATE WILL CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS LITURGY IN NEW YORK
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This Sunday, January 6, Christmas Day, Archbishop Anoushavan will celebrate the Divine Liturgy, deliver the sermon, and officiate the Blessing of the Water service at St. Illuminator’s Cathedral, in New York City.
On Saturday, January 5, the Prelate will attend and preside over Christmas Eve services at St. Sarkis Church in Douglaston, New York.
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PRELATE’S CHRISTMAS RECEPTION WILL HONOR
HELEN EVANS
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The traditional Prelate’s Christmas reception will take place on Sunday, January 6 from 6 pm to 8 pm in the Vahakn and Hasmig Hovnanian reception hall at the Prelacy offices in New York City.
During the reception Dr. Helen C. Evans, curator of the extraordinary “Armenia!” exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York that will conclude on Sunday, January 13, 2019. Dr. Evans will be presented with the Prelacy’s 2019 “Spirit of Armenia” award for her scholarship and life-long advocacy of Armenian history and culture. Dr. Evans has previously been honored by His Holiness Catholicos Aram I of the Holy See of Cilicia, with the Mesrob Mashdotz Medal in 2007, and by Archbishop Oshagan with the Prelacy’s Queen Zabel Award in 2018.
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CATHOLICOS DECLARES 2019 “YEAR OF THE ARMENIAN PRESS”
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His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Holy See of the Great House of Cilicia, has named 2019 as “The Year of the Armenian Press.” His Holiness writes that after a recent meeting with representatives of the Armenian Press in Lebanon, he deemed it appropriate to declare 2019 in honor of the Armenian Press. While acknowledging that the “Press” in modern times has a more expansive definition, the Catholicos emphasizes that he is speaking primarily about the print media that includes daily, weekly, and monthly newspapers and magazines. His Holiness gives an overview of the very earliest modes of print communication, and then focuses specifically on the very first Armenian newspaper (in India) and the subsequent growth of the Armenian Press in all parts of the world.
His Holiness directs the dioceses under the jurisdiction of the Cilician See to take this opportunity and during 2019 feature the history and role of the Armenian Press through various events including seminars, conferences, lectures, exhibits, and publication of books that focus on the importance of the Armenian Press in the life of the Armenian people.
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Archbishop Anoushavan and Archpriest Fr. Aram Stepanian, pastor of St. Stephen Church, with congregation last Sunday.
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Archbishop Anoushavan celebrated the Divine Liturgy and delivered the sermon at St. Stephen Church in New Britain, Connecticut, last Sunday, December 30. The local newspaper, “The New Britain Herald,” featured an article about the visit in its Sunday edition. In the article Archbishop Anoushavan notes that Connecticut’s St. Stephen Church holds “a unique place in our entire complex. It is second in line as the oldest church in the Prelacy.” A luncheon took place in the church hall following the services.
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ARMENIAN BORDER VILLAGE SCHOOL RECEIVES
FIRST COMPUTERS FROM CATHEDRAL’S ZAROUKIAN FUND
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A view of the computer lab for the students attending the school serving two villages.
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The plaque in the classroom.
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During a trip to Armenia more than one year ago, the Executive Director of the Eastern Prelacy, Dr. Vazken Ghougassian, visited a Middle School that serves two small but ancient villages—Bagaran and Yervantashad—where the rivers Arax and Akhurian merge at the border of present-day Armenia and Turkey. The principal of the school that serves both villages related how the school has no computers and their students graduate with no experience in computer science. The principal was hoping to be able to set-up a small computer lab.
Fast forward to now, the Pastor and Board of Trustees of St. Illuminator’s Cathedral agreed to allocate a grant of $2,500.00 from the Azadouhi Zaroukian Fund for this purpose. A few days ago the Prelacy’s office in Yerevan, the “Metzn Nerses Charitable and Social Organization,” purchased three computers with necessary programs, a printer/scanner, and projector & screen to outfit a modest computer lab for the students. A plaque in the computer room states that the computer classroom has been made possible by the “Azadouhi Zaroukian Fund, of New York’s St. Illuminator Cathedral.”
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Bible Readings for Christmas Eve Divine Liturgy, Saturday, January 5
are: Titus 2:11-15; Matthew 2:1-12; Luke 2:8-14.
Bible Readings for Christmas and Epiphany, Sunday, January 6
are: Titus 2:1-15; Matthew 1:18-25;
1 Corinthians 10:1-4; Matthew 3:1-17.
Blessing of Water:
1 Corinthians 10:1-4; Matthew 3:1-17.
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.
(1 Corinthians 10:1-4)
***
Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.” When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.
(Matthew 1:18-25)
***
“I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
(Matthew 3:1-17)
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FEAST OF ST. STEPHEN AT THE CATHEDRAL
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Very Rev. Fr. Mamigon Kiledjian (Eastern Diocese) and Rev. Fr. Mesrob Lakissian, pastor of St. Illuminator’s, with Deacons Shant Kazanjian, Dickran Kabarajian, and Krikor Esayan.
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The Feast of St. Stephen (Stepanos), the first deacon and first martyr of the universal church was celebrated on Sunday, December 23, after the Divine Liturgy at St. Illuminator’s Cathedral in New York City. On this occasion, the deacons of the Armenian Church are given the honor of wearing the priestly crown (
saghavard
) during the service.
At the conclusion, Rev. Fr. Mesrob Lakissian blessed the deacons of the Cathedral, wishing them many years of service to God and the Armenian Church.
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MOURAD ARMENIAN SCHOOL HANTES
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The Mourad Armenian School of Sts. Varanantz Church in Providence, Rhode Island, recently presented its annual Christmas Hantes. In this group photo the children are shown with the gifts they received, together with Rev. Fr. Kapriel Nazarian, pastor, teachers and staff.
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Students performed some of the songs they learned with help from “little drummer boys” (and girls).
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Birth of Arpoun Dayan
(January 6, 1912)
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Dante Alighieri’s
The Divine Comedy
is one of the jewels of world literature, and as such, it is not surprising that it attracted the attention of Armenian modern writers and translators. We owe its first complete translation to the efforts of an accomplished master of the language, Arpoun Dayan.
Arpoun Dayan was born on January 6, 1912, in Bardizag, near Ismit, in Turkey. He first studied at the elementary school of Makirkeuy, in Constantinople, and then at the Mekhitarist orphanage of Kadikeuy, where his uncle, Rev. Fr. Yesayi Dayetsi (Dayan), a congregation member and a scholar, was the principal.
The Dayan family moved to Italy in 1922, where another relative, Rev. Fr. Ghevont Dayan (1884-1968), a noted scholar of Armenian religious music, lived at the monastery of St. Lazzaro. Arpoun studied from 1923-1927 at the Mourad-Raphaelian College of the congregation, in Venice. After graduation, he moved to Milan.
A new period of his life would start in 1929, when he moved to Soviet Armenia at the age of seventeen. He studied at the one-year pedagogical courses of Yerevan in 1931, and at Yerevan State University from 1932-1933. Afterwards, he went to work for fourteen years as a copyeditor in the newspapers
Sovetakan Hayastan, Grakan Tert, Banvorakan Yerevan,
and in the literary monthly
Sovetakan Grakanutiun,
until 1948.
For the next two decades, Arpoun Dayan worked as a professional translator. At the age of thirty-five, in 1947, he published his first translated book, “Hell,” the first part of
The Divine Comedy,
which would be followed by the next two parts in 1952 and 1959. A full edition of Dante’s masterpiece would come out in 1969. Well-versed in Italian and French, he would also produce translations from Guy de Maupassant (1951, 1961), Honoré de Balzac (1956, 1964), Anatole France (1959), Prosper Merimée (1964), Francois Mauriac (1964), and the memoirs of Benvenuto Cellini (1974).
Dayan returned to editing as a member of the editorial board of the Academy of Sciences of Armenia from 1967-1970. He then entered the academic world, first at the Institute of Art of the Academy from 1973-1977 and then as a junior researcher at the Institute of Literature “Manuk Abeghian.” He published a revised edition of his translation of Dante in 1975 and his study
The Poetic Art and the Translation Issues of Dante’s “The Divine Comedy”
in 1982. His third revised edition of Dante came out at the beginning of 1983. Three months later, on April 6, this prolific translator passed away in Yerevan.
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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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You Need Something to Transfer
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Western Armenian is always engaged into various types of interactions, be them with different foreign languages or its sister variety, Eastern Armenian.
The latter has gone for a long time, and it became more and more prominent after the fall of the Soviet Union. Each variety borrows words and expressions missing from their core vocabulary. In the case of Western Armenian, the frequent use of information produced in Eastern Armenian brings certain words that become a sort of parasites.
Such is the case of the word
փոխանցել
(
pokhantsel
), which literally means “to pass from one to another,” and you translate it as “transfer.” For instance, when you make a money transfer, you call it
դրամի
փոխանցում
(
tramee pokhantsoom
). You can also transmit information—from one source to the other—and call it
տեղեկութեան
փոխանցում
(
deghegootian pokhantsoom
)
However, if you say something, you are communicating it. This is called
հաղորդել
(
haghortel
). For instance, a radio anchor who reads the news is making a news communication (
լուրերու
h
աղորդում
/
looreroo haghortoom
).
The problem comes when you use
pokhantsel
instead of
haghortel,
something that did not happen decades ago. It is common to hear expressions of the type
«
Տիկինը
փոխանցեց
,
որ
...»
(
Deegeenuh pokhantsets, vor…
“The lady transferred that…”), as if you were transferring something, when the actual expression should be «
Տիկինը
հաղորդեց
,
որ
...» (Deegeenuh haghortets, vor
… “The lady communicated that…”).
This is a calque from Eastern Armenian, where people with deficient knowledge of the language, at their turn, are making a mistranslation from Russian. These days, you can unknowingly learn bits and pieces from a language spoken thousands of miles from you. Who knew?
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LATEST EDITION OF “THE TREASURY” IS AVAILABLE
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The latest issue of
The Treasury
is available to read online. The official publication of the Fellowship of St. Voski,
The Treasury
contains short article and essays covering topics ranging from Armenian liturgy and worship, theology, church history, practical Christian living and more. Read the current issue
here
.
You can subscribe to
The Treasury
and received print editions. A minimum donation of $30 (to help cover the costs of production and mailing) entitles you to a one-year subscription. Go to the website
(www.StVoski.org)
for more information.
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“ARMENIA!” CONTINUES TO RECEIVE ACCOLADES;
WE RECOMMEND ONE MORE VISIT
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In ten days the “Armenia!” exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will come to an end. The exhibit has been widely reviewed and has received accolades from art historians and specialist, as well as ordinary viewers. The latest to be added to a long list are “Between Two Empires,” by Peter Brown, Professor Emeritus at Princeton University, published in
The New York Review of Books
, issue dated January 17, 2019 and “The People at the Center of the World,” by Robert Rubsam, a freelance writer and photographer, in
Commonweal Magazine
, dated December 23, 2018.
We remind you that tomorrow, Friday, January 4, in conjunction with the exhibit Armenian Christmas will be celebrated with chants and carols from Armenia and Eastern Orthodoxy by the international ensemble Axion Estin Foundation Chanters with special performances in the galleries. The “Pop-up” performances are scheduled for 2 pm and 6 pm in Gallery 199; and 4 pm in Gallery 305.
Scheduled for next Friday, January 11 at 6:30 pm is a screening of Sergei Parajanov’s influential 1969 film
The Color of Pomegranates
, a poetic biography of 18
th
century Armenian troubadour Sayat Nova, accompanied by a new live score by composer Mary Kouyoumdjian. A panel discussion follows the film that will be shown in The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium. For tickets, visit metmuseum.org/tickets, call 212-570-3949, or stop by the Great Hall Box Office at The Met Fifth Avenue.
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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
[email protected]
.
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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:
[email protected]
or 212-689-7810.
Now through January 13, 2019
—“Armenia!” a large exhibition dedicated to the medieval period of Armenian history and culture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. The exhibit is the first at the Met dedicated solely to Armenia. Curated by Dr. Helen C. Evans.
January 5
—St. Sarkis Church, Dearborn, Michigan, 5 pm, Armenian Christmas Eve Service in Sanctuary; 6 pm, Christmas Eve Family Night in the Hall. RSVP by January 3.
January 6
—St. Sarkis Church, Dearborn, Michigan, Ladies Guild Annual Christmas Luncheon after church services. Food, fellowship, and entertainment. RSVP by December 27.
January 16
—St. Sarkis Church, Dearborn, Michigan, dinner 6 pm; Adult Bible Study 6:45 pm.
January 26
—Screening of the Armenian movie, “The Line,” about the Artsakh War, Community Center of St. Gregory the Illuminator Church, Granite City, Illinois.
March 17
—Annual Musical Armenia concert sponsored by Eastern Prelacy, 2 pm, at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. Watch for details.
May 5
—60
th
anniversary of Sts. Vartanantz Church, Ridgefield, New Jersey. SAVE THE DATE.
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