RELIGIONS NEED TO TALK: ARAM I URGES CHRISTIANITY, JUDAISM AND ISLAM TO PROMOTE PEACE
By Harvey Shepherd, Freelance
The Gazette (Montreal)
October 1, 2005 Saturday
Final Edition
One of the two world leaders of the ancient Armenian Apostolic Church,
Catholicos Aram I, is also a world leader in inter-church dialogue,
as moderator since 1991 of the World Council of Churches.
But his experience in the Middle East, where he is based in Antelias,
Lebanon, as the catholicos (world head) of the branch of the Armenian
church called the house of Cilicia, has led him to give even greater
priority to dialogue between religions.
The Christian churches of the Middle East, one of the three world
religions that began in the region, have “a tremendous responsibility,”
he said in an interview in Montreal this week.
Christianity, Judaism and Islam “are called to play a pivotal role
and become agents of peace-making, agents of reconciliation,” he told
a reporter in the north-end offices of the prelacy of Canada for the
house of Cilicia, next to Sourp Hagop Armenian Apostolic Cathedral.
The Orthodox pontiff, 58, was on his third pastoral visit to Montreal
since he became catholicos in 1995. It was the beginning of a North
American tour marking several anniversaries: the 10th of his service
as catholicos, the 75th of an Armenian seminary in Lebanon, and the
1,600th of the Armenian alphabet.
“Being a Christian is not just being part of a family,” he said.
“It’s also being part of a community and part of the fight being waged
today for principles different from the so-called values imposed on
us by so-called globalization. If we want to establish a healthy,
sustainable world it must be sustained by moral values.”
While the situation in today’s Middle East may leave people insecure
and helpless, it has always been a region where different cultures
interacted, whether through coexistence or conflict, he said.
Relations between them should move past coexistence to “a dialogue
of life where our community life is built on common principles.”
Fundamentalism and “blind traditionalism” are a source of problems in
all religions, he said, as is the blurring of the distinction between
what is and is not religion in public life. “Today, religion is being
exploited for non-religious purposes.”
In addition to attending weekend activities, including a liturgical
celebration and a big cultural celebration in honour of the alphabet,
the prelate also joined representatives of the Canadian Bible Society
Monday in launching the North American edition of a new translation
of the New Testament and Psalms into modern Armenian.
The translation is part of a worldwide effort to produce a new
version of the Bible to complement an ancient translation dating
back to the 5th century, which prompted the creation of an Armenian
alphabet and which is regarded as one of the great achievements of
early Christianity. The language of that old translation, however,
is now archaic and understood by few Armenians.
The translation is largely the work of Rev. Manuel Jinbashian of the
United Bible Societies, a Protestant minister based in France, in
collaboration with several prelates of the Armenian Church, including
Khajag Hagopian, the Montreal-based prelate of Canada. Jinbashian is
currently combining duties for the United and Canadian Bible Societies
with a teaching post at the Universite de Montreal.
“Classic and modern Armenian are as far apart as Latin and French,”
Jinbashian said in an interview.
Since the New Testament translation was completed in 1989, he said, it
has been introduced into the worship of many of the world’s Armenian
churches, including the liturgy that Aram celebrated in Laval this
weekend, complementing the ancient translation. For example, New
Testament readings are often from the new translation except for
those from the first four books, known as the Gospels, which are
chanted in the classical tongue.
A church official estimated that about half of Canada’s ethnic
Armenians live in the Montreal area. She said there are about 40,000
Armenians in the Montreal region, attending churches of either of the
two branches of the church, along with some Catholics, Protestants
and religiously inactive people. (This is about double the census
figure, but some ethnic Armenians identify their origin for census
purposes according to the country their family actually came from,
such as Lebanon.)
Aram is in Ontario for engagements in Toronto, Cambridge and St.
Catharines, and will head for Los Angeles Wednesday to begin the U.S.
leg of his trip. He is to speak at a conference in Los Angeles on
Christian responses to violence.
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