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Re: Have our spiritual leaders lost their moral compass?
A Church that is All Business
http://en.aravot.am/2012/10/30/125276 October 30 2012
by Denis Donikian
We can often be heard cursing the current leadership in Etchmiadzin. This
probably won't change for a long time to come, at least until the church
stops paying lip service to its intended evangelical message and instead
puts this message into action in its everyday thoughts and actions. My
novel *Vidures *describes this phenomenon in detail. The minute that a
spiritual institution gives precedence to the institutional over the
spiritual, you can be sure that it has completely distorted its true and
proper vocation. And in Armenia, a Christian nation where one constantly
repeats the now rather hollowed expression *tsavet danem *(*Let me take
your pain from you*) and where a philosophy of every man for himself has
completely eclipsed any type of altruistic behavior, it seems somehow sadly
fitting that the Church be concerned with money rather than the wellbeing
of its flock.
In the current phase of its history this Church, which is dipping its wick
in the century's xxxxhole, can hardly expect to enlighten anyone on the
Orthodox faith without either being stupidly blind or blissfully
nationalistic. Its parakeets in gold vestments continue to revel in magic
and incantatory formulas that people seem to be so fond of, but far from
seducing God, all they are really doing is widening the gap from which a
strong odor of ethnocentrism emerges. We rarely see them drag their
polished shoes to poor Armenian neighborhoods, for fear that they may have
to share the latter's soup with them. Instead we see them, standing
side-by-side those who have stolen the country's money, blessing weapons,
fruit and newly built constructions, whatever it takes in order to bless
money-making concerns. Yesterday it was apricots at the opening of a film
festival. And who knows? Tomorrow it may be a Barbie doll at the Miss
Armenia competition. The fall has been so steep. And yet=85
An anecdote. One fine day the director of Etchmiadzin's affairs has the
Caholicos' car prepared for a trip. Not a Bentley like the one owned by the
Archbishop Navasard Kchoyan, who is in charge ofYerevanand the Southern
half of Ararat province, no. The South is poor and a Bentley reeks of
wealth. And one musn't show off one's wealth too much. On the agenda today
is a tour of the construction site of the Tatev funicular, as the
legitimate owner of the lands where the former is being built. But on the
way there, the large right hemisphere of the church's autocephalic
representative, decides to stop along the way and break bread in a local
restaurant, where he can mingle with the populace and also cop a free meal
along the way in exchange for a papal blessing. Then he has an even better
idea: why not invite the heads of the Italian company actually building the
funicular so that they can narrate their progress as he scans the menu.
The Italians take their leave=85disheartened: `They say that we complain a
lot about our Pope. But compared to yours, he is a Saint.' Need one say
more?
For all that, the Director of business in Antelias, or the Small Left
Hemisphere of the autocephalic Apostolic church, isn't shy about giving out
its blessings either. As long as they bring in some cash. And for all one
knows, perhaps a papal understanding exists between him and his Big Brother
in Etchmiadzin in order to build a new church, Sourp Garabed, right in the
middle ofLas Vegas, the world gambling capital, the world capital of all
sorts of excesses. Poor Garabed, if only you could see the quagmire that
they've buried your sainthood in! Little Left Hemisphere has already won
the day by consecrating the foundations, probably in the hopes of later
pocketing substantial dividends. A sign of the cross - it's like magic! Even
though the church proffers benedictions, it also needs to know how to
monetize them in order to keep its standard of living and carry out God's
plan. And financial manna doesn't fall from heaven with any greater force
than inLas Vegas, since money reproduces faster there than bread in the
hands of Jesus Christ. In thisDisneylandof cardboard and dollar bills,
Sourp Garabed may yet add a lowly touch of Armenianness to this artificial
and pompous world, one filled with vile taste and lost souls.
But before this, Big Right Hemisphere, who some mean-spirited anticlerics
have renamed The Director of the National and Celestial Bank of
Etchmiadzin, had his own ideas about how to profit from the situation.
Otherwise what money would he use to build his branch offices in Yerevanat
the crossing of Abovian and Sayat Nova streets. Only one solution came to
mind: make off with the European parishes, especially those whose patronage
extend to the great banks, casinos, hotels and families. Like those in
Brussels, or Geneva, or why not the one in Nice which is the second oldest
Armenian Apostolic church in Franceafter the Cathedral in Paris' Rue
Goujon. Azuredly in this part of the coast, our Director tells himself
rubbing his hands together, with the Sun's help and the cicadias buzzing to
their hearts' content, the Angels will join in and everyone will blindly
respect the MotherChurch`that has played such a crucial role in the
millennial history of the Armenian people. Hence it is enough for our
church to demand completely blind allegiance for their flock to do
everything it can to obey without ever revolting. Hence the members of the
Nice Cultural Association were expected to simply accept statutes that
would be summarily imposed on all parishes and in a way that would devolve
all powers (spiritual, political, representative and administrative) to
ecclesiastical authorities. During a general assembly, where they did
however accept a negotiated compromise, parishioners rejected this
proposal, rare Armenians for whom Armeniameans everything=85but they did not
reject every single thing. Since people in high places felt that this
outcome was inadequate, they sent the parish a former priest from the
parish itself, a certain V.A. whose apostolic duty seemed to lie in him
raping all the members of the parish. But one still would have needed to
give them a child, that is to say put them at the behest of Etchmiadzin. In
the following weeks, this V.A., aided by a few sycophants he had recruited
as doormen from the gorilla cage from God knows which public zoo, took on
the mantle of some petty little dictator, separating, on Earth as in
heaven, those parishioners who were worthy of entering their own church,
from the others - which included the President of the cultural association!
And that is how the Nice parish was transformed into a zone where no rights
exist. In short, a mini version of Armeniaemptied out of any sense of
justice whatsoever, celestial or temporal, and emptied as well of any
evangelical compassion, where the average citizen has no choice but to fall
to his knees and put him or herself at the mercy of the more powerful.
Master Catholicos, upon being informed of this certain V.A.'s actions
pouted and remained perched from in his lofty heights. As for the
Primate-who-transmited-information, he declared: `Accept the statutes that
we introduced or step down!' A clear indication of how much one these
blessers of apricots really care for their flock! Moving forward, both
V.A. and the primate used every known method of harassment and
intimidation - none was too great: sabotage, threats of excommunication, a
forced coup d'état, insults and even bodily harm and attacks=85In short, they
acted like pugilists who enjoyed attacking. Arrests occurred, followed by
resignations. The only response by the Primate to help this now
traumatized parish was to appoint a commission to replace the Nice parish
council. As a response to all these attacks against it, the latter
requested the appointment of an ad hoc administrator from the Nice High
Court - Xavier Huertas was thus appointed on July 10th, 2010. As one might
imagine, the General Asembly that Huerta organized was not to the Primate's
liking. Then, the Primate's illegal committee ignored and superseded the
Nice court, under the pretext of changing the Nice cultural association's
statutes! In March 2011, the newspaper Nice-Matin got involved in the
matter, underlining all of V.A.'s criminal activities in the matter, and
during their inquiry revealed that within the Russian mafia there existed
an Armenian mafia which was implicated in sordid dealings such as money
laundering and high class prostitution. Starting then, the merely shameful
turned into the scandalous. The Catholicos' emissary, father K.K.,
interrupted a mass so that he could order the parish's elected treasurer to
leave stage area where candles are lit. And then this same K.K. celebrated
the Mass of the Nativity in the Catholic church of Saint Peter of Arena
rather than Saint Mary's Armenian Apostolic Church under the pretext that
the latter was too small, the real reason being that he then instituted a
new cultural association. Since then, father K.K. leaves Saint Mary's
presbytery where he lives, in order to lead Armenian apostolic mass at
Saint Phillip's Catholic Church. As for the Parish Council, it had to call
on Father Sahag all the way from Moscow so that he could officiate at Saint
Mary's, over the objections of the ecclesiastical authorities.
The next visit of the Catholicos of all Armenians will perforce be
problematic. But I suppose that the man must have something in mind. To
mollify the most fragile of the parishioners and to present himself as a
conciliatory spirit, as a means of reaching his ends. Either way, in the
long run, Etchmiadzin's strategy is to count on even the most ardent
dissidents becoming tired and discouraged, in the hopes that it can deal
itself another, more profitable hand.
(One may consult the file on the Armenian Apostolic Church parish of
Nice-Côte-d'Azur on the internet at the following address:*[*
http://www.eglisearmeniennenice.org/...ion/index.html.)
Since the new statutes were meant to be imposed on all Apostolic Armenian
European parishioners, anywhere that lay people sought to avoid the
Etchmiadzinification of the parish and conserve a minimum amount of
autonomy, explosive situations broke out. In Brussels and Geneva, for
example, the exact same things occurred as sin Nice, although on a less
excessive scale. Until then the Ecclesiastical Assembly of Geneva was
simply following the traditions and rules of the Church which had been for
centuries based on a democratic process. In this tradition, the lay
Assembly decides on its system of organization, including its institutions,
finances and the role of its priest. But in its desire to impose the
Diocese in the entire diaspora, the Catholicos sought to impose his sole
authority everywhere. And so thanks to the Vehapar, after numerous
exchanges, parishioners in Geneva were deprived of the services of their
priest who was abusively defrocked, as well as of their ability to choose,
their right to organize, of its attaché in Etchmiadzin. Today they are
deeply disillusioned and worried about the absence of charity, tolerance
and compassion that this incident has revealed; disillusioned as well by a
Church empty of any spiritual values, and by a pontiff who has forgotten
that he was elected in order to act as the Catholicos of all Armenians.
One can accept that the Mother Church would like to impose a certain
statuary unity to all of the diaspora's churches. But shouldn't it have
prepared such change in consultation with the lay members of the church? In
fact the differences, not to say the hostility, that exists between the
Catholicos and the parishioners in the diaspora can be explained by
cultural differences. The lay people in Geneva, Brussels, Nice and
elsewhere, although they are all Armenian, have a different mindset from
Armenians in Armenia proper. If one's Apostolic faith transcends all other
differences, each person's presence in the world is unique due to one's
history, geographic location, and one's adopted culture. Given this fact,
the Church would have been wiser to keep its own cultural prerogatives to
itself and let the lay people define and form the cultural aspects of their
religion. Today these same lay people find themselves commanded to give up
their identities, their church locales - everything that they and their
parents built up themselves. Given this fact, resistance was inevitable. To
the extent that lay and religious people form one organic whole, the roles
that each play should be mutually respected. A transitory period was needed
in order to dialogue and divide up roles. Instead it seems that the Church
had decided to take over all powers and reduce practitioners to complete
submission, transforming the latter into a virtue.
However under the guise of an apparent normalization of all parishes, which
one might understand, one detects hidden intentions of the most purely
political nature. These are tantamount to the transfer of power and goods
from the lay to the religious. In other words, nothing has changed. The
Church seems to be playing the same tune as the Armenian state when the
latter believes that the diaspora must remain submitted, mute and inert
with no influence whatsoever on Armenia, except as a source of financial
manna. When one knows that the Church does all it can not to contradict the
State, and does even less to bring up its terrible treatment of the poor in
Armenia, it is because the relationship between the two institutions goes
beyond collusion to the point that they exchange one favor for another. You
authorize me to teach religion in schools, I will move into your diaspora
parishes in order to help manage your goods. In fact, all of these stories
demonstrate that the Armenian State, by using the Church and soon by
manipulating information itself, is attempting to control the diaspora, or
at the very least to divide it in order to conquer it. For Armenia's great
fear is that the Diaspora will one day be organized enough to influence its
own decisions. Hence the representatives of the Armenian church in Europe
would one day become channels to transmit and relay the wishes of the
Armenian state. Once this happens, the rising critics of the country's
disastrous management will no longer be able to express themselves freely.
Impeded as they will be by the voice of the Armenian church - parishioners
will have only one choice - to shut up.
A Church that is All Business
http://en.aravot.am/2012/10/30/125276 October 30 2012
by Denis Donikian
We can often be heard cursing the current leadership in Etchmiadzin. This
probably won't change for a long time to come, at least until the church
stops paying lip service to its intended evangelical message and instead
puts this message into action in its everyday thoughts and actions. My
novel *Vidures *describes this phenomenon in detail. The minute that a
spiritual institution gives precedence to the institutional over the
spiritual, you can be sure that it has completely distorted its true and
proper vocation. And in Armenia, a Christian nation where one constantly
repeats the now rather hollowed expression *tsavet danem *(*Let me take
your pain from you*) and where a philosophy of every man for himself has
completely eclipsed any type of altruistic behavior, it seems somehow sadly
fitting that the Church be concerned with money rather than the wellbeing
of its flock.
In the current phase of its history this Church, which is dipping its wick
in the century's xxxxhole, can hardly expect to enlighten anyone on the
Orthodox faith without either being stupidly blind or blissfully
nationalistic. Its parakeets in gold vestments continue to revel in magic
and incantatory formulas that people seem to be so fond of, but far from
seducing God, all they are really doing is widening the gap from which a
strong odor of ethnocentrism emerges. We rarely see them drag their
polished shoes to poor Armenian neighborhoods, for fear that they may have
to share the latter's soup with them. Instead we see them, standing
side-by-side those who have stolen the country's money, blessing weapons,
fruit and newly built constructions, whatever it takes in order to bless
money-making concerns. Yesterday it was apricots at the opening of a film
festival. And who knows? Tomorrow it may be a Barbie doll at the Miss
Armenia competition. The fall has been so steep. And yet=85
An anecdote. One fine day the director of Etchmiadzin's affairs has the
Caholicos' car prepared for a trip. Not a Bentley like the one owned by the
Archbishop Navasard Kchoyan, who is in charge ofYerevanand the Southern
half of Ararat province, no. The South is poor and a Bentley reeks of
wealth. And one musn't show off one's wealth too much. On the agenda today
is a tour of the construction site of the Tatev funicular, as the
legitimate owner of the lands where the former is being built. But on the
way there, the large right hemisphere of the church's autocephalic
representative, decides to stop along the way and break bread in a local
restaurant, where he can mingle with the populace and also cop a free meal
along the way in exchange for a papal blessing. Then he has an even better
idea: why not invite the heads of the Italian company actually building the
funicular so that they can narrate their progress as he scans the menu.
The Italians take their leave=85disheartened: `They say that we complain a
lot about our Pope. But compared to yours, he is a Saint.' Need one say
more?
For all that, the Director of business in Antelias, or the Small Left
Hemisphere of the autocephalic Apostolic church, isn't shy about giving out
its blessings either. As long as they bring in some cash. And for all one
knows, perhaps a papal understanding exists between him and his Big Brother
in Etchmiadzin in order to build a new church, Sourp Garabed, right in the
middle ofLas Vegas, the world gambling capital, the world capital of all
sorts of excesses. Poor Garabed, if only you could see the quagmire that
they've buried your sainthood in! Little Left Hemisphere has already won
the day by consecrating the foundations, probably in the hopes of later
pocketing substantial dividends. A sign of the cross - it's like magic! Even
though the church proffers benedictions, it also needs to know how to
monetize them in order to keep its standard of living and carry out God's
plan. And financial manna doesn't fall from heaven with any greater force
than inLas Vegas, since money reproduces faster there than bread in the
hands of Jesus Christ. In thisDisneylandof cardboard and dollar bills,
Sourp Garabed may yet add a lowly touch of Armenianness to this artificial
and pompous world, one filled with vile taste and lost souls.
But before this, Big Right Hemisphere, who some mean-spirited anticlerics
have renamed The Director of the National and Celestial Bank of
Etchmiadzin, had his own ideas about how to profit from the situation.
Otherwise what money would he use to build his branch offices in Yerevanat
the crossing of Abovian and Sayat Nova streets. Only one solution came to
mind: make off with the European parishes, especially those whose patronage
extend to the great banks, casinos, hotels and families. Like those in
Brussels, or Geneva, or why not the one in Nice which is the second oldest
Armenian Apostolic church in Franceafter the Cathedral in Paris' Rue
Goujon. Azuredly in this part of the coast, our Director tells himself
rubbing his hands together, with the Sun's help and the cicadias buzzing to
their hearts' content, the Angels will join in and everyone will blindly
respect the MotherChurch`that has played such a crucial role in the
millennial history of the Armenian people. Hence it is enough for our
church to demand completely blind allegiance for their flock to do
everything it can to obey without ever revolting. Hence the members of the
Nice Cultural Association were expected to simply accept statutes that
would be summarily imposed on all parishes and in a way that would devolve
all powers (spiritual, political, representative and administrative) to
ecclesiastical authorities. During a general assembly, where they did
however accept a negotiated compromise, parishioners rejected this
proposal, rare Armenians for whom Armeniameans everything=85but they did not
reject every single thing. Since people in high places felt that this
outcome was inadequate, they sent the parish a former priest from the
parish itself, a certain V.A. whose apostolic duty seemed to lie in him
raping all the members of the parish. But one still would have needed to
give them a child, that is to say put them at the behest of Etchmiadzin. In
the following weeks, this V.A., aided by a few sycophants he had recruited
as doormen from the gorilla cage from God knows which public zoo, took on
the mantle of some petty little dictator, separating, on Earth as in
heaven, those parishioners who were worthy of entering their own church,
from the others - which included the President of the cultural association!
And that is how the Nice parish was transformed into a zone where no rights
exist. In short, a mini version of Armeniaemptied out of any sense of
justice whatsoever, celestial or temporal, and emptied as well of any
evangelical compassion, where the average citizen has no choice but to fall
to his knees and put him or herself at the mercy of the more powerful.
Master Catholicos, upon being informed of this certain V.A.'s actions
pouted and remained perched from in his lofty heights. As for the
Primate-who-transmited-information, he declared: `Accept the statutes that
we introduced or step down!' A clear indication of how much one these
blessers of apricots really care for their flock! Moving forward, both
V.A. and the primate used every known method of harassment and
intimidation - none was too great: sabotage, threats of excommunication, a
forced coup d'état, insults and even bodily harm and attacks=85In short, they
acted like pugilists who enjoyed attacking. Arrests occurred, followed by
resignations. The only response by the Primate to help this now
traumatized parish was to appoint a commission to replace the Nice parish
council. As a response to all these attacks against it, the latter
requested the appointment of an ad hoc administrator from the Nice High
Court - Xavier Huertas was thus appointed on July 10th, 2010. As one might
imagine, the General Asembly that Huerta organized was not to the Primate's
liking. Then, the Primate's illegal committee ignored and superseded the
Nice court, under the pretext of changing the Nice cultural association's
statutes! In March 2011, the newspaper Nice-Matin got involved in the
matter, underlining all of V.A.'s criminal activities in the matter, and
during their inquiry revealed that within the Russian mafia there existed
an Armenian mafia which was implicated in sordid dealings such as money
laundering and high class prostitution. Starting then, the merely shameful
turned into the scandalous. The Catholicos' emissary, father K.K.,
interrupted a mass so that he could order the parish's elected treasurer to
leave stage area where candles are lit. And then this same K.K. celebrated
the Mass of the Nativity in the Catholic church of Saint Peter of Arena
rather than Saint Mary's Armenian Apostolic Church under the pretext that
the latter was too small, the real reason being that he then instituted a
new cultural association. Since then, father K.K. leaves Saint Mary's
presbytery where he lives, in order to lead Armenian apostolic mass at
Saint Phillip's Catholic Church. As for the Parish Council, it had to call
on Father Sahag all the way from Moscow so that he could officiate at Saint
Mary's, over the objections of the ecclesiastical authorities.
The next visit of the Catholicos of all Armenians will perforce be
problematic. But I suppose that the man must have something in mind. To
mollify the most fragile of the parishioners and to present himself as a
conciliatory spirit, as a means of reaching his ends. Either way, in the
long run, Etchmiadzin's strategy is to count on even the most ardent
dissidents becoming tired and discouraged, in the hopes that it can deal
itself another, more profitable hand.
(One may consult the file on the Armenian Apostolic Church parish of
Nice-Côte-d'Azur on the internet at the following address:*[*
http://www.eglisearmeniennenice.org/...ion/index.html.)
Since the new statutes were meant to be imposed on all Apostolic Armenian
European parishioners, anywhere that lay people sought to avoid the
Etchmiadzinification of the parish and conserve a minimum amount of
autonomy, explosive situations broke out. In Brussels and Geneva, for
example, the exact same things occurred as sin Nice, although on a less
excessive scale. Until then the Ecclesiastical Assembly of Geneva was
simply following the traditions and rules of the Church which had been for
centuries based on a democratic process. In this tradition, the lay
Assembly decides on its system of organization, including its institutions,
finances and the role of its priest. But in its desire to impose the
Diocese in the entire diaspora, the Catholicos sought to impose his sole
authority everywhere. And so thanks to the Vehapar, after numerous
exchanges, parishioners in Geneva were deprived of the services of their
priest who was abusively defrocked, as well as of their ability to choose,
their right to organize, of its attaché in Etchmiadzin. Today they are
deeply disillusioned and worried about the absence of charity, tolerance
and compassion that this incident has revealed; disillusioned as well by a
Church empty of any spiritual values, and by a pontiff who has forgotten
that he was elected in order to act as the Catholicos of all Armenians.
One can accept that the Mother Church would like to impose a certain
statuary unity to all of the diaspora's churches. But shouldn't it have
prepared such change in consultation with the lay members of the church? In
fact the differences, not to say the hostility, that exists between the
Catholicos and the parishioners in the diaspora can be explained by
cultural differences. The lay people in Geneva, Brussels, Nice and
elsewhere, although they are all Armenian, have a different mindset from
Armenians in Armenia proper. If one's Apostolic faith transcends all other
differences, each person's presence in the world is unique due to one's
history, geographic location, and one's adopted culture. Given this fact,
the Church would have been wiser to keep its own cultural prerogatives to
itself and let the lay people define and form the cultural aspects of their
religion. Today these same lay people find themselves commanded to give up
their identities, their church locales - everything that they and their
parents built up themselves. Given this fact, resistance was inevitable. To
the extent that lay and religious people form one organic whole, the roles
that each play should be mutually respected. A transitory period was needed
in order to dialogue and divide up roles. Instead it seems that the Church
had decided to take over all powers and reduce practitioners to complete
submission, transforming the latter into a virtue.
However under the guise of an apparent normalization of all parishes, which
one might understand, one detects hidden intentions of the most purely
political nature. These are tantamount to the transfer of power and goods
from the lay to the religious. In other words, nothing has changed. The
Church seems to be playing the same tune as the Armenian state when the
latter believes that the diaspora must remain submitted, mute and inert
with no influence whatsoever on Armenia, except as a source of financial
manna. When one knows that the Church does all it can not to contradict the
State, and does even less to bring up its terrible treatment of the poor in
Armenia, it is because the relationship between the two institutions goes
beyond collusion to the point that they exchange one favor for another. You
authorize me to teach religion in schools, I will move into your diaspora
parishes in order to help manage your goods. In fact, all of these stories
demonstrate that the Armenian State, by using the Church and soon by
manipulating information itself, is attempting to control the diaspora, or
at the very least to divide it in order to conquer it. For Armenia's great
fear is that the Diaspora will one day be organized enough to influence its
own decisions. Hence the representatives of the Armenian church in Europe
would one day become channels to transmit and relay the wishes of the
Armenian state. Once this happens, the rising critics of the country's
disastrous management will no longer be able to express themselves freely.
Impeded as they will be by the voice of the Armenian church - parishioners
will have only one choice - to shut up.
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