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The Armenian Weekly; Volume 74, No. 7; Feb. 23, 2008

Arts and Literature:

1. Book Review: ‘Homosexuality and Same-Sex Union’
By Andy Turpin

2. Two Poems by Armand
Translated by Tatul Sonentz

***

1. ‘Homosexuality and Same-Sex Union’: What the Armenian Church Believes
By Andy Turpin

WATERTOWN, Mass. (A.W.)-New to readers is the Armenian Apostolic Church of
America’s (Eastern Prelacy) first volume in an ongoing series on
"Contemporary Ethical Issues: An Armenian Orthodox Perspective." The first
volume released covers "Homosexuality and Same-Sex Union."

Future volumes will address the issues of marriage and divorce, procreation
and reproductive technology, abortion, genetic screening and genetic
technology, suicide and euthanasia, organ donation and cremation.

Twenty-seven pages long, the volume on homosexuality is brief, if not
cursory, in its analysis, and could not be called a treatise. But in the
parlance of many an English teacher comparing a written essay to an adequate
skirt, "it’s long enough to cover the subject." Loyola College professor of
theology and volume author Vigen Guroian does recommend a suggested reading
list, though, at the end of the volume for more in-depth works on the topics
presented.

The Prelacy’s position on GLBTQ (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and
Queer) issues has not changed or moved in theory or practice. However, the
release of such a volume is indicative that the Prelacy wants its position
clear and known to a wider demographic to catalyze discussion and thought.

This represents a new step for the Church into the public sphere, emerging
>From an epoch not long past in which many clergymen would not regard GBLTQ
issues at all as topics of conversation within Armenian communities.

Guroian does in fact come at the issues at hand from varying angles within
the essay, perhaps in the spirit of being thorough and attempting to tread
lightly regarding a highly charged subject for most citizens around the
world.

In his soft shoes, though, he may end up swapping off one topical booby-trap
for another with quasi-condemnatory passages: "The Bible and the Church
Fathers condemn the commission of homosexual acts, whether the persons who
behave that way are individuals whom we today would describe as having a
homosexual orientation and practice a homosexual lifestyle, or heterosexual
persons who, for reasons of location or situation (e.g. imprisonment) or
fanciful experimentation (e.g. sex with young boys), choose to have genital
relations with the same sex."

Most Armenians are already aware of the Church’s stance on homosexuality and
same-sex unions. But to define the rape or molestation of children as
"fanciful experimentation" opens a clerical Pandora’s Box that the Vatican
can attest of late is hard to close.

The volume also notes paradoxically that while the Church is against "gay
marriage" (because it cannot define it as a legitimate marriage in the
Biblical sense), it is not against heterosexual same-sex unions.

It states: "There is no overwhelming legal reason that civil same-sex unions
may not be between two persons who are heterosexual and wish to take
advantage of tax and other benefits that accrue from such a legal
arrangement. As laws are passed that sanction same-sex unions, some will
surely raise this option."

The comic nature of such a decision is that the Church has given benevolent
approval to a demographic that not only is uncontroversial, but may not even
exist, outside perhaps the theoretical cases of "Holmes and Watson," "Burt
and Ernie" and "Jeeves and Wooster."

Gender studies, sexology, genetics and reproductive science professionals
might also take note that the Prelacy’s position states: "Today we are aware
that some people have an underlying condition of erotic attraction (a
predisposition) towards persons of their own sex. And while this is by no
means an exact science, we know that the sources and causes of this
condition are complex and multifactorial."

While it does not condone homosexual behavior or acting out, the Prelacy
makes it known that it overwhelmingly welcomes those struggling with
homosexuality into its folds for support and guidance.

For more information about the Prelacy’s "Contemporary Ethical Issues"
series or to purchase a copy of its "Homosexuality & Same-Sex Union" volume,
visit
————————- ————————————————– ———

2. Two Poems by Armand

Oh, but It Sings

The voices died,
far and near –
All now sleep in peace.
I stare at the flames
dancing in the fireplace
And hear the anguish in her murmur.
Today there’s nothing I can say to her
that could stay ablaze.
Haven’t written in days,
Though in my heart
I feel a gap and a flame.
I’m envious of that fire
Bleeding with aroused passion
as it dies slowly down…
Oh, but it sings!

ARMAND
Translated by Tatul Sonentz

***

To the New Year

Tell me, how many times is it
that you’ve come to visit,
Barefoot as a beggar, peddling the "New",
smelling of decay
>From the top of your head to the tip of your toe?
Once more, you stand in my soul’s doorway.
What have you brought – or promised to bring –
that’s new? Anyway,
I no longer believe in the miracle of you!
Look, earlier visits robbed our souls
of love, of the glimmer of hope
and the twinkle of joy,
leaving behind a chest full of sighs…
It isn’t only the sadness that you add
to our already sad lives –
You bring us the blues, mournful, misty,
the color of God’s silent words,
moody as the skies.
I know, you come as a crook. No matter.
Look, I’ve shut my eyes, take all you want
that’s pulsing and warm, but I can’t
let you steal and take that
which cannot be robbed –
Inviolate beauty and purity of love that glow
on the altar of my soul –
they’ll always be there,
Settling ever deeper, in my heart’s nest.
Your previous visit should remind you best –
how on that gray evening, I hacked off
the grasping hand that dared try
to reach the unreachable skies
of my soul, trying to grab the cluster of its stars,
and disturb the azure murmur of its reverie…
– Do you recall?
There was a nineteen-fifteen –
My heart still bleeds and aches for the blood that even
"Neptune’s ocean wide" cannot wash away clean!
Neither can "All the sweet perfumes of Araby"
dissolve or disguise that smell…

If you, the "New", can’t sweeten the bitter salt
of the orphan’s tear,
and justice will stay lame
and never reach its aim,
If the tears of the meek shall forever flow,
and the vomit of the over-sated,
untimely death, mourning and sorrow
shall forever reign – then,
Turn around and leave! Our hearts are full,
and there is no reprieve…

ARMAND
Translated by Tatul Sonentz