Our Diocesan Primate

His Grace Bishop Mesrop Parsamyan

Primate of the Armenian Church Diocese of America

A native of Yerevan, Bishop Mesrop attended Gevorgian Theological Seminary of Holy Etchmiadzin, where he received his Bachelor’s degree in Theology in 2003. He was ordained into the holy priesthood that same year, and thereafter served until 2004 as the staff-bearer for His Holiness Karekin II, the Catholicos of All Armenians.

He earned a Master’s degree in Theology and Religious Sciences from the University of Strasbourg, France, and studied in Dublin, Ireland, at the International Study Centre. In 2011 he received his Archimandrite (Vartabed) rank: the Doctoral degree of the Armenian Church.

As a professor at Gevorgian Theological Seminary from 2007 to 2011, Fr. Mesrop taught Christian Ethics, and simultaneously served as deputy-chancellor of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin. During this period, he had two pastoral stays in Brussels, Belgium, and in Nice, France.

He went on to serve the Armenian Church Diocese in Geneva, Switzerland, as its Locum Tenens Primate. He was Vicar General of the Armenian Diocese in Marseille, France, from 2012 to 2013, and the following year served in Paris as Locum Tenens Primate of the Armenian Diocese of France.

Throughout his ministry in Europe (2007-2014), Fr. Mesrop was member of the Church and Society Commission of the Conference of European Churches.

Fr. Mesrop Parsamyan came to the United States in 2015, and took up the pastorship of Holy Shoghagat Church in Belleville, IL, for a period of two years. In 2017 he took up a position at the Diocesan Center in New York City as its director of Ministries. He was appointed as Vicar of St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral in 2018.

In the autumn of 2019, Fr. Parsamyan answered the call of His Holiness Karekin II, to return to the Mother See and take up a new role as Dean of Gevorgian Seminary. He led the seminary through Armenia’s ensuing years of trial and affliction, before completing his mission for His Holiness, returning to the U.S. in 2021.

Immediately prior to his election as the 13th Primate of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America, Fr. Mesrop Parsamyan served the Diocese as its Director of Ministries.

His election as Primate took place during the 120th Diocesan Assembly, meeting in New York City and online, on Friday, May 6, 2022. Upon the confirmation by His Holiness Karekin II, the Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, Fr. Parsamyan became the 13th Diocesan Primate.

On October 8, 2023, Fr. Mesrop was consecrated as a bishop by the hand of Catholicos Karekin II, at Holy Etchmiadzin. By the appointment of Catholicos, Bishop Mesrop serves on the Supreme Spiritual Council, alongside other leaders of the worldwide Armenian Church. Bishop Mesrop Parsamyan is proficient in Armenian, English, French, and Russian, reflecting his commitment to cross-cultural understanding and international communication.

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 PUBLICATIONS 

“The Semantics of [Classical Armenian] Prepositions, in Vardan and the Armenian War by Yeghisheh Vartabed” (2003).

“Towards a Theology of Culture: An Analysis of ‘The Light of Faith’ and ‘The Figure of Revelation’ in Hans Urs von Balthasar’s The Glory of the Lord, Seeing the Form” (2007).

“To Become God: The Threefold Path of Man’s Deification, According to the Spiritual Writings of St. Nerses Shnorhali” (2015). 

 Light and Hope: Reflections of the Spirit (2021) 

Other readings:

• My First Episcopal Badarak as Bishop
• A Divine Homecoming
• Religious Leaders of the Area