THE
P RTAL
November 2017
Page 6
The Armenian
Orthodox Apostolic
Church
Fr Mark Woodruff takes us to Armenia
A
t Antioch we saw Peter first establish his leadership, before his path took him west. We saw
apostles leave for the east as far as China, and across the ocean to India. We have seen Greek-tradition,
Syriac-tradition and later Arabic Christianity that survive to this day in the surrounding south, west and
east of the region. But what of the north? Andrew, Paul and John are credited as apostles of the Greeks. But
in the mountains of south-central modern Turkey, and across the plains to the Caucasus mountains and the
Caspian sea lived others: the Armenians.
We think of Armenia now as a land-locked ex-Soviet
country in the Caucasus, but in the century before
the apostles it was its own empire balancing the rival
Romans and Persians. Even reduced to a buffer state by
Rome in the first century, its people settled and traded
everywhere across the eastern Mediterranean. By the
same token, others settled and moved alongside the
Armenians. Among them were two Aramaic-speaking
Jews, Bartholomew and Thaddaeus, honoured as the
Armenians’ first apostles. The Armenian Orthodox Apostolic Church, like
the Syriac Orthodox, is “Oriental Orthodox”, not
accepting the Council of Chalcedon’s definition that
Christ is one Person in two natures, human and divine
of one substance with the Father.
Doubtless Armenians were among those hearing
their tongue at Pentecost, for, after initial persecution,
Armenia was the first state to declare itself Christian in
301. Christianity has been the defining characteristic
of Armenian civilisation ever since, especially under
Arab, Persian, Ottoman Muslim and later Soviet
domination. In the 12th century, local Christian
Armenians were favoured by the Crusaders liberating
the Christian Middle East from Islamic oppression,
and an Armenian kingdom of Cilicia flourished in
what is now south-central Turkey across the sea from
Cyprus. Armenian Orthodox often say that Church division
is more to do with mutual isolation than doctrinal
disagreement. So, as contacts have grown over the
centuries, the renewed links have often been positive.
With the Mediterranean Armenian population
subjected by the Ottomans, Armenians found new
homes in Eastern Europe. Many in this western
Armenian tradition looked to the Catholic Church,
forming part of it with their own hierarchy and rites.
This is now agreed to be a difference over translation,
not about faith. Catholics, Orthodox and Oriental
Orthodox agree that the human and divine are not
mixed but remain, yet inseparably united in one Christ.
The Armenian Catholic monastic congregations
of Vienna and Venice were crucial in scholarly
preservation of Armenian language, history, chant,
The heirs to this historic presence are today’s liturgy, texts and spirituality, a contribution prized
communities in Syria, Lebanon and the Holy Land. also by the Armenian Orthodox. A noticeable feature
The western Armenians have their own Catholicos of contacts with the west was the adoption of tall Latin
of Cilicia based in Lebanon; there is an Armenian episcopal mitres – the eastern episcopal crown was
Patriarch of Constantinople for the community still then devolved to priests.
in Turkey, and another in Jerusalem. The Catholicos
in Etchmiadzin, the mother see in Armenia itself, is
Armenian Catholics were ruthlessly suppressed in
primus inter pares. Their rite preserves an early form communist Eastern Europe. Their patriarch, father
of the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, signifying close to 740,000 Christians (of whom over half a million
cultural and religious links with the Greek Byzantine are in Armenia), is based in Beirut. There are six
world (Chrysostom was a Greek from Antioch). million Armenian Orthodox, with nearly half living in
Unusually among the Eastern Christians, Armenians Armenia itself.
use the organ with their rich chant tradition.
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