PRESS RELEASE
Diocese of the Armenian Church of Australia & New Zealand
10 Macquarie Street
Chatswood NSW 2067
AUSTRALIA
Contact: Laura Artinian
Tel: (02) 9419-8056
Fax: (02) 9904-8446
Email: armenian@idx.com.au

8 June 2007

PRIMATE MAKES HIS ANNUAL PASTORAL VISIT TO AUCKLAND

The first Monday in June celebrates the Queen’s birthday holiday in New
Zealand and has become the traditional weekend when Primate of the Diocese
of the Armenian Church of Australia and New Zealand, His Eminence Archbishop
Aghan Baliozian makes his much awaited pastoral visit to the Armenian
Community of Auckland.

Following on from his participation as an Australian delegate in the
Asia-Pacific Regional Interfaith Dialogue held in Waitangi, NZ from 29-31
May, the Archbishop flew into Auckland Airport in the afternoon of 31st May
to be warmly greeted by members of the Armenian community.

Archbishop’s itinerary for the pastoral weekend began on Friday with a visit
to Dr Minas Elias, one of the earliest Armenians to migrate to New Zealand
and father of present Chief Justice of New Zealand, the Rt. Hon. Dame Sian
Elias. Dr Elias arrived from Burma (Myanmar) in the 1950’s and has been the
face of Armenians in New Zealand ever since. He will celebrate his 90th
birthday in November.

The same evening, the Armenian community gathered in a local community hall
for dinner to welcome Archbishop Baliozian and create that ‘new Armenia’
that Saroyan so famously wrote about. The intimate gathering brought
together more than half of the 100 or so community members to share an
evening of laughter, festivity and a traditional Armenian banquet.

On Saturday morning, accompanied by community members the Archbishop made
his way to the local cemetery where he blessed the graves of deceased
community members, offered prayers of comfort and conducted a requiem
service for the souls of the dearly departed.

A meeting with committee members of the Armenian Society of New Zealand took
place with Archbishop Baliozian on Sunday morning to discuss the welfare of
the small community. In the afternoon, Holy Mass was celebrated by the
Primate at St Peter’s Anglican Church in Takapuna. In his sermon the
Archbishop reflected on the importance of faith, church and unity in
service. "The key factor of effective service and servanthood", he
underlined "requires putting aside personal issues and differences and
working in unity toward a common goal for the benefit of the church,
community and nation."

Following the church service, the congregation gathered together for dinner
to honour the Archbishop’s visit. It was also an opportunity for the
Community to bid farewell to Ara Ovanessoff, former Chairman of the Armenian
Society of NZ and a stall-bearer at church services, who for work reasons
will be relocating overseas with his family.

Archbishop Baliozian spent a leisurely day with members of the community
visiting privately with families as is his custom, before attending a
farewell party in the evening which concluded his pastoral visit for yet
another year. He made his safe passage home to Sydney on Tuesday, 5th June.