PARLIAMENT PASSES BILL ON RELATIONS BETWEEN CHURCH AND GOVERNMENT

Armenpress
Feb 21 2007

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 21, ARMENPRESS: Armenian lawmakers have approved
today in the second reading a bill drafted to regulate relationships
between Armenian Apostolic Church and the government.

The bill stems from a constitutional amendment approved in 2005
November saying that these relationships can be regulated by
a special law. The bill, particularly, says that the Republic of
Armenia acknowledges the Armenian Apostolic Church as the national
church with the center in the Mother See of Etchmiadzin and with
its Patriarchates in Jerusalem, Constantinopolis (Istanbul) and the
Cilicia Catholicosate in Lebanon and recognizes the Armenian Church’s
exclusive mission in the spiritual life of Armenians.

The bill fixes also the Church’s historical, spiritual, cultural
and documented heritage as a basic and integral part of the Armenian
national identity.

The bill reserves a role to the Church in education, giving it a
right to found, sponsor and run various educational establishments and
teach at state-run schools a subject called The History of Armenian
Church. The bill be put to the third and final reading this week.