NUMBER OF PARISH COMMUNITIES OF ARMENIAN APOSTOLIC CHURCH IN RUSSIA REACHES 60

Noyan Tapan
June 19, 2009

MOSCOW, JUNE 19, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The number of parish
communities of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Russia has reached
60, Blagovest-Info reported, referring to Golos Armenii newspaper’s
interview with Bishop Yezras Nersesian, the Head of Nor Nakhijevan
and Russian Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

Bishop Nersesian said in the interview that during the first years
after his appointment as the head of Nor Nakhijevan and Russian
Diocese, the diocese had seven priests in 10 parish communities
registered at the Russian Ministry of Justice. Now 27 priests
serve in the parish communities. Bishop Nersesian considered the
construction of the Moscow church complex which began in 2006 as the
greatest achievement. The complex will become the biggest spiritual
educational and cultural structure of the Armenian Apostolic Church
outside Armenia.

According to Bishop Nersesian, the disocese includes not only Russia’s
parish communities from Vladivostok to Kaliningrad, but also those
in Baltic states, Belarus, Moldova and Central Asia. "During my
years as the diocesan head, 15 churches were built and consecrated
in cities where there had been no Armenian churches in the past,
namely in Barnaul, Krasnoyarsk, Yaroslavl, Volgograd, Samara, Tver,
Omsk, Vladivostok, Ulan-Ude, Sterlitamak, Saratov, Yekaterinburg,
and Rostov-on-Don," the bishop said, addressing the problem of the
preservation of Armenian identity. In his words, "our sacred duty is
to unify the Armenian people around our Church, to maintain and ensure
a link among the generations and between the present and the past,
to bring God’s Word to each parish, each human through the Gospel,
to open schools and educational centers for our children, for the
upbringing of the younger generation. The most important task is
unite the young persons around our national spiritual values. We
must prevent Diasporan Armenians from moving away from their roots,
and the faith helps preserve our identity".