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Eastern Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America
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Contact: Iris Papazian

October 4, 2005

The Vision and Commitment of Catholicos Aram I
Has Strengthened the Armenian Church;
His Ecumenical Achievements Span Four Decades

NEW YORK, NY-During the ten years of the Pontificate of His Holiness Aram I,
the Holy See of Cilicia has seen an era of advancement in a number of areas
affecting the revitalization of the church. For more than forty years he has
been a participant in the worldwide Ecumenical Movement and today is
considered to be one of the ecumenical giants of our time.
As the community of the Eastern Prelacy prepares to welcome His Holiness
for a fourteen-day visit, it seems proper to pause and reflect on the life
and service of His Holiness Aram I.

Elected in 1995
His Holiness Aram I, the spiritual leader of the Holy See of Cilicia of
the Armenian Apostolic Church, was consecrated Catholicos on July 1, 1995,
after serving as Primate of the Armenian Orthodox community in Lebanon for
15 years.
He was ordained a celibate priest in 1968 and obtained the title of
Vartabed (Doctor of the Armenian Church) in 1970. In 1979, after serving for
one year as Locum Tenens, he was elected Primate of the Armenian Orthodox
community in Lebanon. The next year he received his Episcopal ordination.
His tenure as Primate of the Armenian community in Lebanon coincided with
the Lebanese Civil War. During this time and after, His Holiness reorganized
parishes and schools, restructured and reactivated church-related
institutions, and renewed community leadership.
Born in 1947 in Beirut, Lebanon, His Holiness is a graduate of the
Armenian Theological Seminary in Antelias, Lebanon, and the Ecumenical
Institute of Bossey, Switzerland. He received his M.Div. from the Near East
School of Theology, his S.T.M. jointly from the American University of
Beirut and Near East School of Theology, and his PhD from Fordham University
in New York. He also holds several honorary degrees. His major areas of
specialization are philosophy, systematic theology, and Near Eastern church
history.
In the ten years of his Pontificate, he reorganized and revitalized the
work of the Church, particularly in the areas of theological education,
Christian education, publications, communications, cultural activities,
youth, justice and peace, and human rights. He completed several
construction projects such as the Cilician Museum, Center of Archives and
Manuscripts, buildings for bishops and monks, a guesthouse and offices, a
center for youth and university students, and apartments for low-income
families.
He made pontifical visits to all the dioceses of the Catholicosate in the
Middle East, Europe, and North and South America, creating a new dynamism to
the relationship between these worldwide dioceses and the administrative
center of the Church, the Catholicosate, in Lebanon.
During the past decade the Catholicos emphasized the Church’s outreach
through social service, including caring for orphans, the elderly and the
disabled.

The Scholar
For many years His Holiness has lectured regularly on armenological,
theological, and ecumenical subjects at the Seminary and Haigazian
University in Beirut. He has also given numerous public lectures in various
universities, academic and cultural centers, and at public events and
international gatherings. One of his most enjoyable tasks is lecturing to
and engaging in dialogues with students.
In addition to hundreds of articles and reviews in Armenian, English and
French (some of which have been translated into Arabic, German, Spanish and
Swedish), His Holiness Aram I has written more than twenty books.

The Ecumenist
He strengthened ecumenical relations and collaborations, by establishing
a special department for this work with a full-time director, developing
close personal relations with world church leaders, organizing important
ecumenical meetings and events, and chairing and lecturing at international
conferences and events in different regions.
He has maintained relationships on an international level with heads of
states, political and religious leaders, and representatives of
international organizations.
His Holiness recalls his earliest encounter with the Ecumenical Movement
with these words:
“My personal ecumenical journey began with The Week of Prayer for
Christian Unity, as a young seminarian at the Theological Seminary of the
Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia, in Antelias, Lebanon in the early 1960s.
For the first time in my life I came to witness how people from different
churches gather to pray and reflect together, and seek together the unity of
the church. This very fact of togetherness struck me profoundly. It left a
tremendous impact on my life at this early stage of my theological
formation. Simply, I fell in love with ecumenism, with this ‘strange’
movement that brings people together in one place and in all places. I
started reading ecumenical periodicals and books with great interest and
followed the ecumenical news and developments. When I was a student,
ecumenism was for me a sort of academic interest. After I was ordained as a
minister, it became a way of life, a quality of being Christian in the world
today.”
Since that auspicious beginning, His Holiness has been active in
inter-church dialogue, relations, and collaborations. In 1972 he was
appointed as the Catholicosate’s representative for ecumenical relations. He
served in this position until 1995, and represented the Church at major
theological and ecumenical conferences, assemblies, and consultations in
different parts of the world.
His ecumenical involvement reached its zenith when in 1983 he was
elected to serve as a member of the Central Committee of the World Council
of Churches (WCC) at the Vancouver Assembly. This was followed by his
election as Moderator of the Central and Executive Committees at the
Canberra Assembly in 1991, the highest position of this global fellowship of
churches, which comprises more than 350 churches from different confessions,
cultures, nations and regions. He became the first Orthodox and the youngest
person to be elected to the position of Moderator. After serving as
Moderator for seven years, His Holiness was unanimously re-elected at the
Harare Assembly in 1998. The re-election of His Holiness, which was based on
his “strong leadership, firm commitment, theological knowledge and
administrative experience,” was unprecedented in the history of the WCC.
As a strong supporter of inter-religious relations, dialogue and
cooperation, His Holiness has played a significant part in promoting common
values, mutual understanding and peaceful coexistence among religions.

Beyond the 1700th Anniversary
Having played a major role in the 1700th anniversary commemorations in
2001, His Holiness looked beyond this anniversary towards a renewed Armenian
Church. He said:
“I believe that the Armenian Church cannot and should no longer ignore
the imperatives of the changing times. It must not only react; it must
become proactive. The Armenian Church must start a process of renewal. This
is no longer a question of choice; it has become an urgent necessity. This
is no longer an abstract or abstruse concept, but an issue of existential
nature and scope. In fact, renewal is a sine qua non condition for any
church that is committed to carry on its witness responsibly and efficiently
in the present world..
“The Armenian Church is facing critical questions, acute concerns and
multi-faceted problems. They must be addressed seriously and realistically
according to a clearly established agenda. The Church cannot wait in a
vacuum. It is already behind the times.”
Convinced that the Armenian Church will become a church of the Third
Millennium only through renewal, His Holiness’s focus and attention is on
this renewal as he begins the second decade of his Pontificate.
Without any doubt, his vision and commitment has made the Catholicosate
of Cilicia of the Armenian Church a living center of reflection, dialogue
and action.