His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians made a short visit to UK to meet with the Parish Councils and discuss the future of the United Kingdom and Ireland Dioceses. St Yeghiche Armenian Church Parish Council representatives Viken Haladjian and Keghvart Vartanian together with Very Rev Fr Aren Shaheenian attended this meeting which was arranged by HG Bishop Vahan Hovhanessian. The meeting was held on 21st January 2015 at HAY DOON to discuss various subjects relevant to the future of the UK Diocese and the various parishes within its jurisdiction. All churches, in UK and Ireland attended the meeting and His Holiness gave his fatherly advice and blessed all present members for their dedication to the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church and wished them all the success in their endeavour to make the transition a smooth one.
OBITUARY: VAHAN HOVANESIAN
VAHAN HOVANESIAN
1956 – 2014
Vahan Hovanesian, a long-time ARF Bureau member and most recently, Armenia’s Ambassador to Germany passed away on Sunday 28th December after a long illness.
Vahan Hovanesian was born on August 16, 1956 in Yerevan.
He graduated with degrees in history and archaeology from the Moscow Pedagogical Institute in 1978 and received his Ph.D in history. From 1978-1980 he served in the Soviet army.
From 1980 to 1989 he worked as a research assistant and later as a head of the scientific research division in the Erebuni Museum. In 1989 he worked as a research assistant in the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography under the Academy of Sciences.
From 1990 to 1992 he was an active member of the Artsakh liberation movement.
From 1990 to 1992 he was a member of the ARF Central Committee of Armenia, becoming one of the first leaders of the organization in Armenia when it resurfaced during the latter days of the Soviet Union. In 1992 he became a member of the ARF Bureau, but in 1994 he was arrested after then president Levon Ter-Petrosian started a campaign of persecution against the ARF and shut down the party’s activities in the homeland.
After Ter-Petrosian’s resignation in 1997, Hovanessian served as adviser to Armenia’s new president Robert Kocharian and headed the Commission on issues of Local Self-Government until 1999.
In 1999, he was elected a member of Armenia’s Parliament, becoming chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Defence and National Security and Internal Affairs, and served until 2003 in the ARF’s parliamentary caucus.
On May 25, 2003 he was re-elected by the proportional system from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation and elected Vice-President of the National Assembly on June 12.
He was also a member of both the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Faction and its bureau.
On May 12, 2007 he was elected as a deputy of the National Assembly by the proportional system from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation.
On June 7, 2007 he was elected Vice-President of the National Assembly and on February 28, 2008 he resigned, after the ARF left the governing coalition in objection to the state’s plans to sign the Armenia-Turkey Protocols.
On 28 December 2013, Hovanesian was appointed as Armenia’s Ambassador to Germany.
A 7th day memorial service will be offered for his soul at St Yeghiche Armenian Church on Sunday 4th January 2015 after Divine Liturgy.
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Rest In Peace Mrs. Siran Manoukian
Rest In Peace Mrs. Siran Manoukian
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing away of Mrs Siran Manoukian, the wife of late Mr. Yeghiche Manoukian, in whose memory St Yeghiche Church was named, on 18th December 2014. Mrs. Manoukian mother of Vahe, Vatche, Varouj, Levon and Raffi, was born in Sivas (capital of the province of Armenia Minor) on January 1921. May God accepts her through his Heavenly gates and bless her soul and comfort all her family members.
The funeral service will be held at St Yeghiche Armenian Church, attended by His Holiness Karekin II, on Monday 22nd December 2014 at 12:00 noon.
It will be followed by a private family burial.
A book of condolences will be available this Sunday at St Yeghiche Armenian Church at Cranley Gardens, Kensington London SW7 3BB and a memorial service will be offered at the end of Divine Liturgy.
Prince Charles condemns Der Zor Armenian church destruction
Prince Charles condemns Der Zor Armenian church destruction
11:04, 20 November, 2014
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 20, ARMENPRESS. Prince Charles condemned the destruction of the Der Zor Armenian Genocide Memorial during a visit Wednesday to the St. Yeghiche Armenian Church. “Armenpress”, reports about this citing Asbarez.
Prince Charles visited St. Yegiche Armenian Church on Wednesday as part of his efforts to raise international awareness about persecution of Christians in the Middle East, among them Armenian communities, which have been impacted by unrest in Iraq and Syria.
“It is literally heartbreaking to learn of the attacks on Christians and on the churches where they gather, such as the mindless, brutal destruction of the Armenian church in Deir el-Zor earlier this year,” said Prince Charles during remarks at the church.
The London community gathered for this special visit. Also present was Armenia’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom Dr. Armen Sarkisian.
He went on to praise those who’ve suffered for standing up to adversity: “I greatly admire the courage and faith of your flock who are an example to us all of faith quite literally under such grotesque and barbarous assault.”
Earlier this month the Prince gave a video message for the charity Aid to the Church in Need to launch their report into “Religious Freedom in the World.”
At the time he said: “The horrendous and heart-breaking events in Iraq and Syria have brought the subject of religious freedom and persecution to the forefront of the world’s news.
“It is an indescribable tragedy that Christianity is now under such threat in the Middle East; an area where Christians have lived for 2,000 years, and across which Islam spread in 700AD, with people of different faiths living together peaceably for centuries.”
In December 2013 The Prince expressed concern about the current challenges facing Christians in some Middle-Eastern nations and visited the Coptic Orthodox Church Centre in Stevenage and the Syrian Orthodox Church in Acton to find out more.
Prince of Wales condemns ‘grotesque and barbarous assault’ on Middle East Christians
Prince of Wales condemns ‘grotesque and barbarous assault’ on Middle East Christians
Published 19 November 2014 | Ruth Gledhill
The Prince of Wales has condemned the persecution of Christians in the Middle East as “the most soul-destroying tragedy” and as a “grotesque and barbarous assault”.
Speaking today at London’s Armenian cathedral, he said the persecution in the Middle East in countries where Armenian Christians have long lived peacefully with their neighbours was “literally heartbreaking”.
Prince Charles spoke out in particular against the “mindless brutal destruction” by Jabhat al-Nusra Islamists of the Armenian church in Deir el-Zour in Syria, which was dedicated to the one and a half million Armenians murdered by the Turks in 1915. The loss included archives from as early as 1841 and during the attack, the remains of hundreds of genocide victims were taken from the crypt and desecrated by being scattered on the ground outside the church.
In a further atrocity, a 1,800-year-old church in Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, was destroyed by Islamic State earlier this year. The church was believed to house the tomb of the biblical prophet Jonah. The city’s Christians had already fled the city after being ordered either to convert to Islam, pay a tax, leave or be murdered.
The Prince of Wales said: “As I have said before along with so many others I have been deeply distressed by the appalling, nightmare faced by Christians, and other minority communities in various parts of the Middle East. Every week I receive, see letters from people who are gravely concerned about the persecuted church in the Middle East. Our prayers for those who have to endure this continuing horror, seem so hopelessly inadequate under such dreadful circumstances, but please, please just know how truly heartfelt they are.”
The Prince of Wales has worked ceaselessly to encourage inter-faith dialogue and a greater understanding between faiths.
His visit to St Yeghiche Armenian Church in Kensington followed his address in December last year when he spoke passionately about the challenges facing Christians in some Middle-Eastern nations. At that point, he visited the Coptic Orthodox Church Centre in Stevenage and the Syrian Orthodox Church in Acton.
Archbishop of Iraq Avak Asadourian said that until relatively recently Iraq had been a good and innocent place to live. The coup of 1958 followed by four wars since 1980 had destroyed the fabric of Iraqi society.
“The last of these was the ill-advised war of 2003. For 11 years now we have had a destroyed infra-structure,” said the Archbishop, describing high-level corruption, a school system that has broken down and ongoing violence between rival sects as the conditions Iraqis live under now.
While in 1980 there were about 1.5 million Christians in Iraq, there are now about 400,000 and numbers continue to dwindle.
“If political measures are not adopted very soon, then Christianity in its eastern manifestation will cease to exist in its own birthplace. If this comes to pass, how sad it will be for all of us.”
Armenians in Syria, where they have been settled since 1915, have also become a target during the fighting there with schools and churches vulnerable to arson attacks. Many Armenians have fled from Syria back to Armenia. The Diocese of the Armenian Church of the UK and Ireland has raised £15,000 to help the Armenians of Syria during the past year.
The Prince of Wales visited Armenia in May 2013. The cathedral is one of two Armenian churches in London, St Yeghiche and St Sarkis, also in Kensington. St Yeghiche, formerly known as St Peter’s, is a former Anglican Church which was closed in around 1973 and taken over by the Armenians in 1998. It has been restored and refurbished and is now an extraordinarily beautiful Victorian neo-gothic gem with a seating capacity of 1,000.
The first Armenian Church built in the UK is the Holy Trinity Church in Manchester which was built and consecrated in 1860.