Armenian Studies Program
University of Michigan, International Institute
1080 S. University
Suite 2660
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1106
Phone: 734/615-4304
Fax: 734/763-9154
Email: septrion@umich.edu
Contact: Julie G. Septrion, Program Coordinator

AN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE CHURCH OF ARMENIA TO BE HELD AT THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
ANN ARBOR, APRIL 1-3, 2004

An international conference entitled “Where the Only-Begotten
Descended: the Church of Armenia through the Ages,” will be held at
the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Some forty papers, by experts
from Armenia, Europe and the USA, will highlight certain aspects of
the history, dogma, rites, literature and religious, social and
political role of the Church of Armenia, and the nature and extent of
the relations this 1700-year-old national church has had with other
Christian Churches as well as Zoroastrianism and Islam. The
conference is sponsored by Mike and Shirley Kojaian and the Alex and
Marie Manoogian Foundation.

The Church of Armenia has fashioned the Christian Armenian
tradition and, until recently, has been nearly its sole custodian.
There is no adequate history of this venerable tradition; and no
comprehensive history of the Armenian people can be written without a
history of its oldest and most influential institution. It is with
the express purpose of filling this gap that this international
conference is being convened. The proceedings will be published as an
outline of a history of the Church. It is hoped that both the
conference and the volume will inspire further research leading to
even better histories of the Church of Armenia herself and the
Armenian people.

The conference has been organized by the Armenian Studies
Program at the University of Michigan, and will be held in Ann Arbor,
April 1-3, 2004. The sessions have been arranged chronologically and
thematically and will meet from 9:00am to 5:00pm on each of the three
days. At 7:00pm on the evening of April 1, Dr. Robert W. Thomson,
Calouste Gulbenkain Professor Emeritus of Armenian Studies, Oxford
University, will deliver the keynote lecture on “The Armenian
Tradition of Biblical Commentary.” This lecture is at the same time
the fifth in the newly-inaugurated “Michigan Lectures in Early Judaism
and Christianity” series. It will be followed by a public reception.
For the benefit of those who might be able to attend, the sessions on
April 1 will be held at Shorling Auditorium (School of Education) and
those on April 2 and 3 at The Alumni Center, Founders Room. For more
information, please contact Julie Septron (_septrion@umich.edu
<mailto:septrion@umich.edu>_), tel. 734/615-4304.