Fr. Mesrop Parsamyan expressed humble gratitude, appreciation for his predecessors, and optimism for the road ahead in his first message to the people, following his election as the 13th Primate of the Eastern Diocese.
Over seventeen centuries ago, in the heart of Armenia, a vision changed the course of our faith. St. Gregory saw a brilliant light descending from heaven, marking the very spot where the Mother Cathedral of Holy Etchmiadzin would be built. This was no ordinary light; it was the light of Christ Himself, illuminating the path for a nation and its people.
St. Gregory called out to the Armenian people with a message that resonates with us today: “Come, let us build the Altar of Light, for it is here that the Light has dawned upon us.” …
When we face challenges, there’s always that temptation to doubt, to hesitate, to second-guess ourselves. We make decisions, and right afterward, we start asking ourselves, “Did I make the right choice? Is this the right thing to do? Did I hear from God clearly?” And sometimes, even when we pray, we wonder, “Is God really listening? Will He answer me? Can I trust that He will fulfill His promises?”
In the New Testament, the apostle James tells us, “Ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord” (James 1:6-8).
Archbishop Shnork Kaloustian was a prolific and active leader of the Armenian Church, who served in different capacities from Jerusalem to America to Istanbul, where he was the 82th Armenian Patriarch of Turkey for the last 29 years of his life.
Arshag Kaloustian was born on September 27, 1913, in the village of Ighdel, in the region of Yozgat. His father was a victim of the genocide and most of his siblings also died in the period 1915–1923. Little Arshag changed various orphanages in the years 1922-1927, from the former American college of Talas (Kayseri) to the American orphanages of Nahr Ibrahim in Lebanon and of Nazaret in Palestine.
