Last Sunday, Pashinyan and his “associate” Kchoyan staged a “liturgy” at the Holy Cross Church in Yerevan’s Arabkir district. I put the word “liturgy” in quotation marks because these people’s motives for going to church are extremely far removed from spiritual life and fit squarely within Pashinyan’s obsessions—replacing the Catholicos and punishing clergy who are not in his pocket.
I saw online that a believer wanted to go to Holy Cross for the liturgy but, upon learning that Pashinyan was there, abandoned the idea. I would have done the same. Breathing the same air as those people—especially inside a church—would be unbearable for me. Moreover, both the one who humiliates and the one who allows himself to be humiliated are equally unacceptable to me. Joining a sectarian conspiracy so that criminal charges will no longer be brought against you is, to put it mildly, an extremely ugly phenomenon.
But a more fundamental question arises for me: should I enter that church from now on, or does it somehow need to be “aired out,” purified? And what if, in the past, a clergyman gave us a cross and has now become Pashinyan’s servant? Or what if one of the renegade priests has baptized our child or officiated at a wedding?
I do not know the precise answer. Perhaps clergymen—real clergymen—can suggest how one should approach this issue. But my view is as follows. The Holy Cross Church, and all the churches visited by “Pashinyan’s army,” belong neither to the Catholicos, nor to any bishop, nor to any priest—whether renegade or faithful to his service and duty. They are God’s houses, which no political show can possibly “defile.” That which is wholly light cannot be defiled by the intrusion of “warriors of darkness.” The same goes for the cross, the same for marriage, the same for baptism.
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…Unfortunately, it has turned out that in various churches in Armenia there are priests whose current conduct provokes disgust. But neither St. Hovhannes, nor Holy Cross, nor St. Sargis are to blame for that.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
