“Tearing up from 4 sides is going on. It is a hard time for the Apostolic Church, today. I do not know why many people think that the church should act as self-defense. It is a wrong position. Yes, there is a mistake, but we have to be next to them, the Armenian nation, to be able to resolve every issue. We must support the church, and not take a stance and say, they must do this, they must do that. What shall we do? The church is for people, isn’t it? The church is the people, not just the Catholicos. Imagine there’s no man in the church, will there be a Catholicos? Whom is the Catholicos for? For the people.” – so commented Rev. Armen Mikaelyan, Head of Aragatsotn office of the Armenian Missionary Association, pastor of the Armenian Evangelical Church, in the conversation with Aravot.am with regard to the criticism to the Catholicos. According to him, people should have a respectful attitude toward the Catholicos and the clergymen, in general, “On seeing mistakes, it should not bring charges. The Apostolic church is not a power structure. Yes, we have given a lot into their own hands, we have given, and we require, but it does not have a serious leverage over Missionary, Evangelical, Jehovah’s Witnesses or over the other one.
Today, I have a more powerful lever than the apostolic church. Today, I can speak freely, to blame, but it has no right to do so. If it blames, the relevant European Commission will come and they will answer for it. They have signed agreements… this is complicated, do you understand? We are a church of the 21st century. And you should clearly realize that there is Venice, the Venice Commission, there are committees, there is a signature, there is Europe. Even if they oppose to many things, they can not. Of course, they can not. This should be gradually, it is not a daily thing. Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, if the Apostolic church did not make a reasonable step, the Apostolic Church in all over the Europe, all over the world will be blamed, do you want it?” To our question, in other words, we must not talk about mistakes, not to voice them to avoid diminishing the role of our church in the international arena, he replied, “Indeed, we need to remain in the international role and move our righteousness and justice forward.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
