Armenian Church of America

The following essays were composed in response to a Circular-Letter issued by Catholicos-Patriarch John Peter XVIII Kasparian, the Uniate Patriarch of Cilicia. The text of the Circular-Letter, related documents, and an account of the circumstances surrounding the publication and reception of the letter are available in The Mother Church and Roman Catholic Missionary Activity in a Reborn Armenia (St. Vartan Press, New York, 1993).
Like its predecessor, the present volume is divided into two parts: the essays in the first part are English translations of documents originally written in Armenian; the second part presents the same essays in their original form. In translating the texts, we have aimed at clarity, while maintaining the greatest possible fidelity to the original. In places, some expansion was required, and these are duly noted within the text. Elaborations and clarifications by the translator are so attributed and enclosed in brackets; these are distinguished from an author's expansions upon his own quoted sources, which are followed by the author's initials and enclosed in parentheses.

The editors are aware that these essays combine a certain combative rhetorical style with genuine scholarship. (It should be added that such rhetoric may be the appropriate way to respond to the original Circular-Letter, which was itself more a lengthy editorial than a work of scholarship.) Professor Hakopian's implied characterization of the doctrine of papal infallibility, or his equation of assimilation and annihilation as merely different forms of genocide, may reasonably be seen as questionable interpretations. Whether such passages represent a serious defect in the exegesis of historical data is another matter.
In anticipation of critics of these essays, the editors maintain that such sentimental flourishes should not deter us from extracting something of scholarly value from the essays. That valuable information, reflected in the title of the present volume, consists in tracing the historical origins of the Catholic communities in Armenia, and charting their development to the present. This component stands on its own, and deserves serious attention by disinterested scholars. Needless to say, the same analysis explodes the historical speculations presented in the original Circular-Letter.

One further insight may be deduced from the following essays, although it is nowhere stated explicitly. Surely the central point of controversy between the Armenian Church and the Roman Catholic Church is the latter's claim to universality. What is at issue in Catholicos-Patriarch John Peter's Circular-Letter—and what ultimately emerges as the issue in this volume—is whether the Armenian Church exists under the authority of Rome. Patriarch John Peter seems to regard the independent Armenian Apostolic Church as a kind of aberration, and suggests that any legitimate apostolic church of Armenia must be subsidiary to the Roman Catholic Church, which he regards as the Universal Church. A logical response, however, is that the very existence of an Armenian-rite Catholic church— whose liturgical traditions and norms for priestly celibacy, e.g., diverge from the rest of Catholicism—contradicts such universalist claims. Either the norms of Catholicism are universally applicable, in which case there should be no separate Armenian-rite Catholic church, or the attempt to create in the Armenian Catholic church a "weigh-station" between an autonomous Armenian Apostolic tradition and full subsumption under Rome must be seen as a kind of devious power-play, characteristic of an Italian tradition of quite a different vintage.

The editors of the present volume do not claim to read into the intentions of churchmen of previous centuries. As for the present century, relations between the sees of Etchmiadzin and Rome are good. The current pope, John Paul II, is a stirring and admirable leader; his sharpening of the great moral arguments of the day has been a benefit to all branches of the Christian religion. Rome has a genuine claim to the leadership of the Christian world in this sense—but in this sense alone.

Certainly, the history of this past century has reminded all followers of the living Christ that our common adversary is the secular "culture of death," to use Pope John Paul's powerful phrase, evident in its obvious forms of fascism and communism, but also in a more subtle form which has resulted in the dissolution of the family, civil unrest and philosophical nihilism in the West. As terrible as these developments are, there may be a kind of divine purpose in them, if in response Christians are persuaded to focus more fully on moral matters, and away from hierarchical or institutional ones. We offer these thoughts as a token of our desire for a cessation of inter-communal hostilities, and as an invitation to a deeper friendship in the cause of truth.

C. H. Z., New York City, 1994

The founding of the first Armenian Church in the Americas (in Worcester, Massachusetts) and the development of this church into the center of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America began with the immigration of Armenians from the Ottoman Empire in the late nineteenth century, and their need for communal identity and organization. They were thousands of miles from their ancestral homeland, away from their families and traditional leaders, in a very different type of society. The formation of an organized Armenian community was a difficult process, involving conflicts between various groupings as well as simple personality clashes. It also was difficult to find clergymen who were able to adapt to the conditions of the new community. In spite of such obstacles, the foundations of a religious and community life were set for future generations of Armenians in America.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface.......
Introduction.
Chapter 1
The Formation of the Worcester Armenian Community..............1
Chapter 2
The First Armenian Priest in America..............1 0
Chapter 3
The First Church. .......................1 5
Chapter 4
The Library Association: Conflict between Pastor and
Church Members..............1 7
Chapter 5
Successors of Fr. Sarajian..............20
Chapter 6:
The Establishment of the Armenian Diocese in America............28
Epilogue..............32
Sources..............33
APPENDICES
Introduction..............35
Appendix A: Documents..............3 6
Appendix B: The Constitution of the Diocese of America and Commentary..............101
CREDITS......134

Although some Armenians emigrated to the United States as early as the 1600!$, the largest influx of Armenians began after the 1890's—hence the first century of Armenians in America—from the 1890's to the 1990s. The Armenian Assembly is proud to offer this book as a testament to the thousands of Armenian-Americans who liave contributed their talents to make this country a better place to live.

The future holds many challenges for Armenians in America and each of us must play a role in helping shape our community's responses to the issues we will face. The Armenian Assembly looks forward to the growing involvement of Armenian-Americans in America's future.

Jirair Haratunian Chairman, Board of Directors

We, leaders and ministers of various churches in the United States, feeling the full weight of the responsibility that rests upon our shoulders by virtue of our having committed ourselves to serve the highest interests of our fellowmen everywhere, realizing that the only pledge for a sound and significant peace is the implementation of justice in the relations of peoples, and accepting the United Nations as the sole instrument for the arbitration and settlement of the claims and contests between nations, respectfully submit this Petition.
WHEREAS, the Armenians are a distinct and ancient people with a rich historical and cultural inheritance. As long ago as 3000 B.C. the old stock, from which the Armenian nation sprang, occupied the Armenian highland.
Throughout the centuries, the Armenians have courageously struggled to maintain their land and preserve their freedom successively against the Persians, the Romans, the Seljuks, the Mongols and, in recent centuries, the Turks. In the seventeenth century, Armenia was partitioned between Turkey and Persia. During the nineteenth century parts of historic Armenia, including Kars and Ardahan, passed into the sovereignty of Russia.
During the last seventy years the Armenians have suffered their most bitter persecution at the hands of the Turks who attempted to liquidate them.
By the Treaty of San Stefano, 1878, Russia forced Turkey to agree to measures of reform in the Armenian provinces.
By the Treaty of Berlin, 1878, Britain, France and Germany reentrusted the security of the Armenians to Turkey. Turkey then began a systematic massacre of the Armenians. Between 1894-1896 more than 300,000 Armenians were slaughtered. At that time, the first Armenian refugees were received into the United States. In 1909 another 30,000 Armenians were massacred by the Turks in Cihcia.
At the outbreak of World War 1 the Turks thought the opportune moment had arrived to dispose of the Armenian question by exterminating the Armenians. Feeling free of all international restraints, they turned upon the Armenians with fire and sword, murdered more than 1,000,000, drove 1,500,000 into exile and confiscated an amount of property estimated in billions.
During the war the Armenians rendered brilliant and heroic service to the Allies. After the collapse of Russia, single-handed they stood off the effort of the German-supported Turkish might to seize the Baku oil fields. To the failure to gain this source of fuel German General Von Ludendorf attributed the collapse of the German armies in Europe. Said Turkish General Ihsan Pasha — "Had it not been for the Armenians, we would have conquered the Caucasus."
This service to the Allies was acknowledged with high praise by Woodrow Wilson, Clemenceau, Lloyd George, Henry Cabot Lodge, Briand, Premier Poincare, Viscount Bryce, Lord Robert Cecil, Lord Balfour, Kerensky, the Senate of the United States, the British House of Commons, the French Parliament and the Italian Chamber of Deputies.
It was proclaimed that "the liberation of Armenia is one of the war aims of the Allies."
But that liberation has never taken place.
It is true that by the Treaty of Sevres, Turkey agreed to surrender to Armenia such lands as President Wilson should adjudicate. It is true that Wilson drew a boundary that would have restored to Armenia forty percent of Armenian Turkey. But the rivalries of the Allied powers prevented the carrying out of the Wilson award.
Instead of turning the land over to the Armenians, Turkey not only reoccupied Erzeroum, Trebizond, Van and Bitlis in their entirety — but seized Kars and Ardahan as well, murdering their inhabitants. Today, Turkey occupies ninety percent of historic Armenia. The ten percent remaining was for its preservation incorporated into Russia by the surviving 850,000 Armenians. During the subsequent years the million and a half of exiles have been scattered as displaced persons through some thirty nations.
The Christian Church has a profound concern for the Armenians. Armenia, which officially adopted Christianity in 301 A.D., is the oldest Christian nation on earth. Much of the persecution which they have undergone has fallen upon them at the hands of Zoroastrians and Moslems because the Armenians chose to remain faithful unto death The terrible persecution of the first World War shocked Christianity to its depths, and tens of millions of dollars were poured out in relief.
It is time once more for the Christian Church to take up the cause of the Armenians. It is time for the Church to awaken the conscience of the nation to resume its historic concern for the brave and sorely persecuted people. The birth of the United Nations has brought into existence a world tribunal before which the Armenian cause may be pleaded.

THEREFORE, we respectfully and urgently petition you to use the good offices of our government to place the cause of the Armenians before the United Nations Assembly; to plead for the restoration of the land within the Woodrow Wilson award to the Armenian people; and to seek that these people, by their own self-determination, be given the right to decide the political future of their restored land.
SIGNATURES
Signed by 20,000 clergymen of the various Protestant denominations in the United States and by over 300 missionaries and native ordained pastors connected with American missions in 57 countries in all parts of the world.