PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr.Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Director
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: info@ArmenianOrthodoxChurch.org
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

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"FELLOWSHIP BUILDING RELATIONS CONSTITUTE THE HEART OF THE ECUMENICAL
MOVEMENT"
ARAM I

In a second key-note speech on "Ecumenical relations" delivered in the
context of his formal visit to the Orthodox Church in India, His Holiness
Aram I emphasized the pivotal importance of relations. He said: "Relations
generate mutuality, it deepens fellowship and builds community. Relations is
the second name of ecumenism".

His Holiness identified six dimensions of relations which are closely
inter-vowen: intra-church relations, inter-church relations, church-society
relations, relations with neighbors, relations with environment, and
relations with God.

Aram I then spelled out the significant features of the different dimensions
of church’s relations. Within this context he put the emphasis on the
relations with neighbor and with environment. He said that "relations with
our neighbor today is neither mere relations nor coexistence; it is living
together as a community". Therefore, in his view "we must know how to live
together with our differences, accepting each other and providing space for
each other". Catholicos Aram I believes that the otherness of the other is
not a source of fear but hope".

Speaking about our relations with the environment, Aram I reminded the
public that what is called ecological crises is "essentially a moral crises
pertaining to humanity-God relations". He said, that "the creation is not a
human possession; it belongs to God. We are stewards of God’s creation.
Hence, we are accountable to God; we must use the creation for the glory of
God; the abuse and misuse of creation is a sin".

At the end of his lecture, Aram I said that "all these forms and expressions
of relations must be sustained by our relation with God: God is the source
and converging point of all human relations".

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View the photos here:
tos444.htm
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The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the Ecumenical
activities of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician
Catholicosate, the administrative center of the church is located in
Antelias, Lebanon.