ARMENIAN CHURCH LEADER TO VISIT SOUTH FLORIDA
By Jennifer Lebovich
Miami Herald, FL
Oct 12 2007
Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch of All Armenians, begins his tour of
South Florida next week
Vartan Joulfayan is pastor of St. Mary Armenian Church in Cooper City,
where His Holiness Karekin II will lead the Blessing of Khachkars.
Arbo Zakaryan’s sons will take the day off Monday — one missing
school, the other work — for the chance to be blessed by their
religious leader.
His Holiness Karekin II, the Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All
Armenians, will lead services at two South Florida churches next week
as part of a month’s trip to America.
"It will probably be once in a lifetime," said Zakaryan, who is on
the parish council at St. Mary Armenian Church, 405O NW 100th Ave. in
Cooper City. "I’ll be able to kiss his hand. That’s a great honor
for me. I hear he is a very friendly person."
About 15,000 Armenians have settled in South Florida, and many are
eager to meet Karekin II during his 18-city visit across the United
States.
"His holiness wants to know his Armenian sons and daughters in
America and let them better know him," said Michael O’Hurley-Pitts,
communications director for the visit.
Karekin II, the leader of seven million Armenian Christians, didn’t
just want to stop in cities with large concentrations of Armenians,
like Chicago, but also in South Florida to meet with as many of his
flock as possible.
On Tuesday, he will be at St. Mary Armenian Church, for the Blessing
of Khachkars — stone crosses on the altar. The nine crosses were
brought from Armenia earlier in the year, and church officials thought
it would be fitting to have them blessed by the holy leader.
PIZZA WITH PONTIFF
First he will visit St. David Armenian Church in Boca Raton, meeting
with the church’s youth over a pizza supper Monday before leading
a service.
"He loves listening to the youth’s concerns, their voices," said
Vartan Joulfayan, the pastor at St. Mary Armenian Church. "Pizza with
the pontiff, you don’t hear that very often."
The Armenian liturgy is similar to that of the Roman Catholic Church.
Armenia converted to Christianity in 301 A.D., O’Hurley-Pitts said.
As Karekin II has led churches in prayer, he has stressed the
importance of making the religious experience more than just going
to church on Sunday.
"One of the things he talks about quite often is understanding
responsibility with Christian values," O’Hurley-Pitts said. "It has
to be more than an experience of Sunday morning. We have to bring it
home and make it part of our family lives."
The number of churches in Armenia has grown from 13 at the end of the
Soviet Era to 250 today. Karekin II was elected to head the church
in 1999 and made his first official visit to the U.S. in 2001.
He leads Habitat for Humanity projects and urges young people to
donate their time.
His calls for charity hit home with Rosemary Mencia, of Fort
Lauderdale, who met him two years ago during a trip to Armenia.
Along with her husband, Andy, she has donated medical equipment for
a hospital Karekin II is rebuilding.
"He is very humble and compassionate, and his coming here to America
is really to bring home the faith to the people," said Mencia, who
is on the parish council of St. David Armenian Church. The church
has been preparing for the visit for months.
Pastor Joulfayan is always concerned with helping people reconnect
with the church and strengthening the faith members.
"His visit will greatly help with bringing people back to the church
and giving the faith back to them . . . so they may be renewed,"
said Joulfayan, who had the chance to meet with Karekin II in New
York earlier in his trip. "His visit and his personal touch will
greatly help the revitalization of the church."
PRAYER AT CAPITOL
As part of this trip, he delivered the morning prayer in the U.S.
House of Representatives on Wednesday — the same day the House Foreign
Affairs Committee approved a measure that would recognize the World
War I-era killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as a genocide.
The move has been staunchly opposed by Turkey, and President Bush spoke
against it, saying it would harm relations between the U.S. and Turkey.
Beginning in 1915, as many as 1.5 million Armenians were reportedly
killed by the Ottoman Turks.
Turkey has denied that the killings were genocide and said the death
toll has been inflated. But Karekin II’s spokesman said the U.S.
visit has been in the planning stages for two years and is of a
spiritual, not political nature.
After the killings, Armenians fled their native land, with many coming
to the United States, which is home to about a million Americans of
Armenian descent.
Seta Baldadian left Lebanon for Florida in 1977, finding her friends
through the Armenian Church.
CENTER OF LIFE
"The church is the center of Armenian life," said Baldadian, the
regional chairwoman for the pontiff’s visit to South Florida. "This
is where we worship, where our youth gather. Everyone from all over
the world will first look for the Armenian Church."
Baldadian has been carefully planning Karekin II’s visit since January,
with daily meetings the past few weeks leading up to his arrival. He
will land in Boca, where a young girl will greet him flowers, and a
boy will have bread and salt to receive his blessing.
"He brings faith to our homes, blesses us, leads us, sees our needs and
our concerns," said Baldadian, of Boca Raton. "It’s a very uplifting
and very blessed occasion."
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