Have our spiritual leaders lost their moral compass?

[londontsi]

Re: Have our spiritual leaders lost their moral compass?

[SIZE=4]

......... To recall, Kchoyan drives a Bentley.

http://www.arminfo.am/index.cfm?obje...3F0EB7C0D21663

He obviously has no class.

If you own a Bentley, you should have a driver also and travel in style.

If you drive a Bentley ( i.e. you cannot afford a driver) then you should work as a chauffer.
Doing weddings and funerals should be a good earner!!

[lampron]

Re: Have our spiritual leaders lost their moral compass?

[SIZE=4]The public is also discontent with the fact that
Kchoyan's jet-setting lifestyle is not becoming to a clergyman. To
recall, Kchoyan drives a Bentley.

most Armenian clergy enter the profession to enjoy an easy life, if not the good life.

Traditionally those who would decide to enter the priesthood would do so because they didn't have many career options open to them

so sadly the majority have no moral principles, no values. They usually come from the lower layers of society. They can become foul-mouthed or even violent when anyone exposes their misdeeds

[bell-the-cat]

Re: Have our spiritual leaders lost their moral compass?

Surb Sargis Church cordoned by police, deacon Vahram's clothes torn off
by Tatevik Shahunyan

Saturday, July 20, 15:17

A tense situation has been created near the Surb Sargis Church
(Yerevan), which is the residence of Navasard Kchoyan, Head of the
Ararat Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

At the moment the church is cordoned by the police, ArmInfo's
correspondent reports from the scene. The thing is that the members of
the Ararat Union of the Armenian Apostolic Church should have held a
protest action in front of the church at midday to support Ter Hakob
Khachatryan, ex-head of the Union, who was dismissed by the recent
decision of Navasard Kchoyan.

While preparing for the action, the members of the Ararat Union tried
to set up microphones, but the employees of Kchoyan's chancellery were
trying to disturb them in every possible way. This developed into an
incident between Hayk Tadevosyan, the head of Kchoyan's staff, and
deacon Vahram, representative of the Ararat Union. Tadevosyan attacked
deacon Vahram and tore off the deacon's clothes.

To note, Kchoyan is reported to have dismissed Ter Hakob for the fact
that press photographer Gagik Shamshyan said in one of the TV
programs: "Ter Hakob is 1000 times as good as Navasard Kchoyan".
According to media reports, this has caused Kchoyan's discontent and
he dismissed Ter Hakob. However, the press service of the Ararat
Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church denies this version.

Navasard Kchoyan's name is often mentioned in various suspicious
stories, for instance, in the offshore scandal with Prime Minister
Tigran Sargsyan. The public is also discontent with the fact that
Kchoyan's jet-setting lifestyle is not becoming to a clergyman. To
recall, Kchoyan drives a Bentley.

http://www.arminfo.am/index.cfm?objectidö7B6340-F12D-11E2-B23F0EB7C0D21663

[bell-the-cat]

Re: Have our spiritual leaders lost their moral compass?

(See the original article for photos of the tacky, tasteless, pimped-up graves that are typical of today's Yerevan cemeteries)

In Yerevan, No Room Left for the Dead?

http://www.eurasianet.org/node/66886

April 26, 2013
by Marianna Grigoryan


A fascination with grandiose graves, built to show respect for the
deceased and bestow honor on the bereaved, could mean that the
Armenian capital of Yerevan, a city of over 1.1 million people, soon
will run out of space to bury its dearly departed.

Graves decorated with huge marble statues and sprawling family
mausoleums abound in all of Yerevan's 21 cemeteries, which now account
for about 10 percent of the city's total land area of 227 square
kilometers, experts estimate. That proportion is twice the size of
what the city can maintain, they say.

`What is happening now with Yerevan is a disaster,' said Vladimir
Badalian, a former MP and sponsor of a 2006 law that set stricter
limits for land allotted to graves and family plots. `If you take a
bird's-eye view of Yerevan, you will see that it is surrounded with
cemeteries from all sides and the loop is gradually tightening.'

`I myself have seen a grave occupying 260 square meters. If things go
on like this, the capital city will become a cemetery one day,'
continued Badalian, who now serves as Armenia's ambassador to
Turkmenistan.

With Armenia's death rate steadily increasing over the past decade (it
stood at 8.49 per 1,000 people in 2012; the second highest in the
Caucasus after Georgia), no one expects demand to slacken in the
foreseeable future.

Only four of Yerevan's cemeteries (Ajapnyak, Shengavit, Spandarian and
Arin-Berd) still have space available, according to the city's Public
Services Department. But since these cemeteries border on residential
areas, room for expansion does not exist.

Over 46 hectares of land are needed to build a new cemetery, and the
city does not have it, one municipal employee noted. `If nothing
changes, Yerevan will run out of burial spaces in 20 years,' predicted
Razmik Harutyunian, an engineer with the city's Public Services
Department.

For now, no change is in sight. The 2006 law restricted graves to 2.5
square meters and family plots to no more than 12.5 square meters, but
those limitations have not been enforced.

Instead, bribery appears to be flourishing. Depending on the
cemetery's location and the size of the desired plot, a grave can cost
the dram-equivalent of a few thousand dollars, or run into the tens of
thousands of dollars, according to families interviewed by
EurasiaNet.org.

In 2008, Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian spoke out on the issue,
mentioning `a well-known chess player' who allegedly paid $2,000 in
bribes to secure a grave for his father. `People are not ashamed of
anything now,' the Azg daily reported Sarkisian as saying.

Ironically, the prime minister himself is blamed for having
contributed to the problem. Many Armenians argue that his decision to
grant non-working days of commemoration for the dead for each of the
Armenian Apostolic Church's six major feast days has strengthened the
country's so-called `cult of the dead. 'On memorial days, Armenians
take flowers and incense for their loved ones and packets of food and
drink for the poor to cemeteries. The visits often expand into
lavish, lengthy restaurant dinners - a custom throughout the Caucasus
- to recollect the lives of the dead. Church services also are held.

One Yerevan resident, Tamara Melkonian, called the need for showy
displays of respect for the deceased =80=9Cdangerous,' recollecting a
neighbor who could not pay for his wife's cancer treatment, but `ran
into huge debts to pay for a big grave and organize `a decent
funeral.'' Twenty-five-year-old philologist Gayane Melkonian agreed;
`I hope one day people in Armenia will be able to live their lives
simply . . . without formalities, and not live their lives to see
what others say.' Others, though, reject criticism. `How to mourn our
relatives comes from the soul and speaking about the amounts [spent]
and the ways [we do that] is sacrilege,' asserted one 37-year-old male
Yerevan inhabitant.

Some are trying to promote cremation as a way to resolve the cemetery
space issue. Twelve hectares of land were set aside for a crematory
and columbarium in 2006, but construction is not expected to start
until next year. The reasons for the delay are not clear. Some
attribute it to opposition from the Armenian Apostolic Church. The
Church, however, has not yet issued an official opinion.

The Reverend Father Vahram Melikian, spokesperson at the Holy See of
Etchmiadzin, the Church's headquarters, commented, though, that the
concept of cremation =80=9Cis unacceptable from an Orthodox Christian
perspective, and is alien to the Christian worldview' since it does
not correspond with Christianity's resurrection beliefs.

Sociologist Aharon Adibekian, director of the Sociometer research
center, does not see any connection between religion and Yerevan's
lack of a crematory. `[I]t is the factor of tradition that matters,
and not religion,' Adibekian asserted.

`Most people in Armenia are materialists and are emotionally bound by
things,' he elaborated. `The body has a certain value and the place
where a family member is buried matters, too.`

In the 1970s, plans also were made for a Yerevan crematory, but
Armenia's Communist Party never signed off on the structure.
Ambassador Badalian hopes that, ultimately, Armenians will come to
recognize the need to curb the country's `cult of the dead.' But, as
yet, no such awareness campaign exists.

Editor's note: Marianna Grigoryan is a freelance reporter based in
Yerevan and editor of MediaLab.am.

2012 © EurasiaNet
________________________________

[TomServo]

Re: Have our spiritual leaders lost their moral compass?

Not about spiritual leaders, but...

This obsession with antiquity, primordialism, autochthonism has to have been nurtured during the Soviet era, right? There has to be a reason every single one of those godforsaken republics (with the possible exception of the Baltic states) believes their nation to be God's gift to humanity (except they existed before Him, too).

Family tree of nations to be installed in Republic Square?

April 15, 2013 - 16:21 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian Center of PR Development has come up with an offer to install a family tree of nations the Republic Square, with Armenia to be portrayed as cradle of humankind.

A picture depicting Armenia as a cradle of mankind is available in a Gospel published in London in 1634, with “Armenia” and “Ararat” words written on Noah's Ark, painted at the foot of the tree.

Source: http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/154242/

[bell-the-cat]

Re: Have our spiritual leaders lost their moral compass?

Construction of Karekin's Yerevan palace is progressing well. One can't have too many palaces, or too many rooms in them.

[bell-the-cat]

Re: Have our spiritual leaders lost their moral compass?

Armenia's best known criminal, Gagik Tsarukyan, pays a visit to his new church in Abovian. No wonder the Armenian Church maintains complete silence on the country's social ills (except for its perverted obsession with "sects") - the Church grows fat from the donations from Armenia's criminal class.

[bell-the-cat]

Re: Have our spiritual leaders lost their moral compass?

I wonder what sect this guy belongs to?

His own, I think.

What right has the Armenian Church to give secret orders that someone cannot even get a visitor's visa to enter Armenia.

[Haykakan]

Re: Have our spiritual leaders lost their moral compass?

"this is a sanative program that has been planned for years, meant to keep society from foolishness and sin."
I guess the religious authorities in Armenia don't want competition. I wonder what sect this guy belongs to?

[TomServo]

Re: Have our spiritual leaders lost their moral compass?

An earlier article:

Vardbedian, who had moved from France to Soviet Armenia at the age of five and received his education in Yerevan, moved back to his birthplace of Marseille in 1975. Although he acquired French citizenship, he also kept his Soviet passport with him. AfterArmenia's independence, that transformed to Armenian citizenship at his own request.

However, a law abolishing dual citizenship was passed in 1994 and Varbedian was deprived of his Armenian citizenship three years later. However, in the period from 1998 to 1999 and then from 1999 to 2002, Varbedian lived in Armenia thanks to residence permits he acquired through the Armenian Ministry of Education and Science as well as the Ministry of Culture. In 2002, his permit was not extended and no reason was cited for the rejection.

A1+ wrote the following in 2002 in that regard – The deadline on the Armenian residence permit of the President of the Essence Union, French citizen Alexandre Varbedian, has expired. Alexandre Varbedian has been told that he will no longer be given permission to reside in Armenia because he belonged to a sect. “The Essence Union is ready to collaborate with the Armenian Apostolic Church,” Varbedian assured, but such proposals have not been met with a reply. The Union has proposed a program called Nation and New Millennium. According to Union members, this is a sanative program that has been planned for years, meant to keep society from foolishness and sin.

http://hetq.am/eng/news/6648/alexand...r-5-years.html