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| NEW YEAR AND THE FEAST OF THE HOLY NATIVITY
We Armenians are fortunate to celebrate two Christmases. Tomorrow we join the world in celebration. Twelve days later we will mark the Nativity and the Baptism of our Lord in a quieter and more spiritual celebration of the miraculous birth of our Savior. On January 6 our focus will be solely on the birth and teachings of our Lord without the modern distractions of parties and gifts.
Next week’s issue of Crossroads will feature the Prelate’s Christmas message and the holiday schedule for the Prelate and Vicar.
ST. ILLUMINATOR’S CELEBRATES 100TH ANNIVERSARY AND
10TH ANNIVERSARY OF ORDINATION OF REV. FR. MESROB
The past two weekends featured historic celebratory events at St. Illuminator’s Cathedral in New York. On December 12 and 19, the Cathedral’s John Pashalian Hall was filled with parishioners and friends to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Cathedral and the 10th anniversary of the ordination of Cathedral’s pastor, Rev. Fr. Mesrob Lakissian. To read an account of the celebration written by Florence Avakian click here.
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|  | Rev. Fr. Mesrob and Yn. Ojeen with their daughter Taleen. | |  | Bishop Anoushavan congratulated the parishioners and Der Mesrob on behalf of the Prelate and the Religious and Executive Councils. | |  | Rosie Mendez, a member of the New York City Council, presents proclamations to Der Mesrob and Board of Trustees members. | | | |
| BIBLE READINGS
Sunday, December 27, Sixth Sunday of Advent are: Isaiah 41:4-14; Hebrews 7:11-25; Luke 19:12-28.
Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. For the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with the tribe Moses said nothing about priests.
This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become a priest, not according to a legal requirement concerning bodily descent but by the power of an indestructible life. For it is witnessed of him, “Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek.”
On the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness (for the law made nothing perfect); on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.
And it was not without an oath. Those who formerly became priests took their office without an oath, but this one was addressed with an oath, “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘Thou are a priest for ever’” This makes Jesus the surety of a better covenant.
The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office; but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues for ever.
Consequently he is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:11-25)
For a listing of the coming week’s Bible readings click here.
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| SAINT STEPHEN,
FIRST DEACON
On Saturday, December 26, the Armenian Church commemorates St. Stephen, the first deacon ad proto-martyr. After Christ’s ascension, the apostles went about spreading the Word. It soon became apparent that more people were needed to serve the growing church community. Seven worthy individuals were called upon to serve the Holy Altar and called “deacons” (sarkavag). The most noteworthy of the seven was Stephen, described as a “man full of faith and the Holy Spirit” (Acts 6:5). The Feast of St. Stephen is a popular and important commemoration in the Armenian Church. It is also a day to honor all deacons of the church. Stephen became the first martyr of the Christian church and is therefore called the “proto-martyr.” The only information about his life and death is in the Book of Acts of the Apostles (Acts 6:8 and 8:2).
HOLY APOSTLES PETER AND PAUL
On Monday, December 28, we remember the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, perhaps the two individuals who had the greatest role in the growth and spread of Christianity. After the Crucifixion and Resurrection, Jesus came to Peter and asked him to tell the other apostles of His appearance and give them His message (Luke 24:34-35). Peter was renowned for his oratory skills, and he used his talent to spread the Word. He preached in Rome and founded the church there. He is considered to be first Bishop of Rome. According to tradition, Peter was crucified in Rome upside down because he declared himself unworthy to die in the same manner as the Lord. He was buried in Rome and his relics are enshrined under the high altar of the magnificent St. Peter’s Basilica.
Paul (Saul) was born in Tarsus in Cilicia. He was an oppressor of the early Christians until on the road to Damascus he converted when a brilliant light blinded him and he heard, “Saul, Saul why do you persecute me? I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. Enter the City and you will be told what to do,” (Acts 9:4-6; 26:12-16). Saul was baptized and renamed Paul and he went on to become the greatest preacher of the new religion, traveling and writing extensively. Many theologians credit him for shaping the future of the Church. His fourteen epistles comprise more than one-third of the New Testament, not including the Book of Acts that although written by Luke, is primarily an account of Paul’s preaching.
HOLY APOSTLES JAMES AND JOHN;
PAREGENTAN OF THE FAST OF THE NATIVITY
Tuesday, December 29, we remember the Holy Apostles James and John, “Sons of Thunder.” Tuesday is also the Paregentan of the Fast of the Nativity.
The apostles James and John (Mark 10:35-41) were called the “Sons of Thunder” because of their passionate and quick-natured character. James was a Galilean fisherman, who was called along with his brother John to be two of the twelve apostles. They, together with Peter, formed the inner core among the twelve who were present at the raising of the daughter of Jarius, the Transfiguration, and the agony of Gethsemane. James is sometimes referred to as “James the Greater” to differentiate from the younger apostle also named James. James was the first of the apostles to be martyred by order of Herod Agrippa (Acts 12:1-2). He is considered to be the patron saint of Spin and according to tradition his body was brought from Jerusalem to Spain to Santiago de Compostela, which became and remains a popular destination for pilgrims. John is also called “The Divine.” It was to John that Jesus on the cross entrusted the care of his mother. Paul names Peter, John, and James as the “pillars” of the church (Galatians 2:9).
PAREGENTAN OF THE FAST OF THE NATIVITY
Next Tuesday, December 29, is the Paregentan of the Fast of the Nativity that leads us to the celebration of the birth and baptism of our Lord and Savior.
SOUNDS OF THE SEASON
Our Sunday school students continue the tradition of presenting a pageant of the Christmas Story. Through participation in these presentations the students learn about the birth of Jesus and the true meaning of Christmas. We are happy to share some photographs that capture the essence of the Christmas season.
ST. GREGORY CHURCH, North Andover, Massachusetts
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|  | The angels of St. Gregory Church proclaim the Good News. | |  | The three kings visit the baby Jesus. | |  | Rev. Fr. Stephan Baljian with the pageant participants. | | | |
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HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, Worcester, Massachusetts
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|  | The students of the Sunday School of Holy Trinity Church had their Christmas celebration last Saturday that included a visit from Gaghant Baba.
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| “LIVING OUT OUR
BAPTISMAL CALL”
The three-part Bible Study program focusing on baptism concluded last Thursday, December 17, at St. Illuminator’s Armenian Apostolic Cathedral in New York City. The sessions were conducted by Dn. Shant Kazanjian, the Director of the Prelacy’s Armenian Religious Education Council (AREC). Over thirty people participated in the program, which was cosponsored by the Cathedral and AREC.
Dn. Shant walked the participants through five key passages from the Bible— Ezekiel 36:25-28, Galatians 3:23-29, John 3:1-8, Romans 6:1-11, and Matthew 3:1-17. These texts, according to ancient Armenian Church tradition, are read during the ceremony of baptism in front of the baptismal font, three readings before the act of baptism and two immediately afterwards. The baptism itself is sandwiched between two sets of Bible readings, which function as a window through which we perceive the meaning of the sacrament of baptism. For three weeks the participants delved into these texts, exploring the multi-dimensional imagery of baptism and its implications and mandates for living out our baptismal call.
Each evening session concluded with a table fellowship. All this was made possible through the leadership of the Board of Trustees and the pastor of the Cathedral, Rev. Fr. Mesrob Lakissian.
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| THIS WEEK IN ARMENIAN HISTORY
Prepared by the Armenian National Education Committee (ANEC)
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| Death of St. Krikor Datevatsi (December 25, 1409)
Until April 23, 2015, when the martyrs of the Armenian Genocide were canonized, Gregory of Datev (Krikor Datevatsi) was the last saint of the Armenian Church.
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|  | A frieze of St. Gregory of Tatev located on the exterior of Holy Transfiguration Cathedral in Moscow, Russia. |
| Krikor Datevatsi was born in 1346 in the district of Vayots Dzor, in the province of Siunik (southern Armenia). At the age of seven, his parents sent him out for education. He later continued his education in the famed University of Datev, where he was a disciple of Hovhan Vorotnetsi (1315-1386), another saint of the Armenian Church commemorated on the twentieth day of the Great Lent.
In 1371 Krikor and his teacher went in pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where the 25-year-old student was consecrated celibate priest. On the way back, Krikor was ordained vartabed and received the doctorial staff from Vorotnetsi. The Matenadaran preserves a Bible copied in 1297, which Datevatsi illustrated in 1378.
Two years later, teacher and disciple moved to the convent of Aprakunis. After the death of Hovhan Vorotnetsi in 1388, Krikor became the head of the convent and gave courses of philosophy, theology, grammar, musical theory, and other subjects.
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|  | St. Gregory's mausoleum located adjacent to St. Peter & Paul Cathedral at Tatev Monastery in the Siunik province of Armenia. | |
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In 1390 he returned to Datev and congregated many students coming from various areas of Siunik and Armenia in general to continue his educational activities. His hundreds of students, among them famous writers like Tovma Medzopetsi and Arakel Siunetsi, played a remarkable role in Armenian cultural and religious life.
During his tenure, the University of Datev reached the pinnacle of its flourishing as a center of science, culture, art, and spiritual life. It had three schools (philosophy and theology, calligraphy and manuscript illumination, and music), where they taught philosophy, religion, Armenian language and grammar, literature, history, rhetoric, manuscript copying, miniature painting, natural sciences and astronomy, mathematics, architecture, music and singing, pedagogy and social sciences, and other subjects. Studies lasted seven to eight years. The university had a rich library, with more than ten thousand manuscript books. The monastery would be totally destroyed and set to fire by Shahrokh, youngest son of Tamerlan, in 1435.
Krikor Datevatsi left an abundant corpus of works, including sermons, commentaries of the works of Aristotle and David the Invincible, and theological works. The most important of his works was the Book of Questions, a sort of encyclopedia that has been compared to the works of Western theologians like Thomas Aquinas and Albertus Magnus. This book also contained a critique of the doctrines of the Catholic Church, since Catholic missionaries had entered Armenia since the fourteen century and created the Armenian branch of the Dominican order, called Fratres Unitores, with proselytizing aims. He also wrote a book of sermons divided into two parts, For the Summer (Ամառան) and For the Winter (Ձմեռան).
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|  | Tatev Monastery above the Vorotan gorge in wintertime. | |
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In 1408, apparently due to the political unrest after the death of Tamerlan in 1403, Datevatsi and his students moved to the monastery of Medzop, near Lake Van, but returned to Datev after a year. The great teacher and writer passed away on December 25, 1409, after a short illness. He is commemorated by the Armenian Church on the Saturday before the fourth Sunday of the Great Lent.
The cultural and religious stature of Datevatsi earned him a place among the twelve statues (the second to the left) surrounding Mesrob Mashdots and his disciple Koriun on the front of the Matenadaran, the library of manuscripts in Yerevan. The St. Gregory of Datev Institute, founded in 1987 by the Armenian Religious Education Council (AREC) under the aegis of the Armenian Prelacy, has also preserved the memory of his name.
Previous entries in “This Week in Armenian History” are on the Prelacy’s web site (www.armenianprelacy.org)
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| ARMENIAN LANGUAGE CORNER
Prepared by the Armenian National Education Committee (ANEC)
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| How to Get Dressed?
What do you do after you wake up? You get up and get dressed. It goes without saying: to get dressed, you put, say, a shirt and pants on.
Of course, there is a difference between “to get dressed” and “to put on.” The former refers to a general rule, without taking into consideration what kind of clothes you refer to, while the latter requires to specify what clothes you are putting on. In other words, “to get dressed” is an intransitive verb, and “to put on” is a transitive verb that needs a direct object). This is why you put a shirt (or a skirt) on.
The same happens in Armenian. The problem, in this case, is that in both cases it is the same verb with a slight variant. We have haknil (հագնիլ) and hakvil (հագուիլ). Which one is what?
To make thing easier, one should remember as a general rule that all verbs ending in –vil (ուիլ), such as lusvil (լսուիլ “to be heard”), khosvil (խօսուիլ “to be talked”), or patsvil (“to be opened”), are intransitive, and do not require a direct object. Therefore, hakvil means “to get dressed,” and Yes hakvetsa (Ես հագուեցայ) means “I got dressed.” If there is a toddler named Haig around, for instance, who needs to be dressed, you use the verb hakvetsnel (հագուեցնել) to indicate that you perform the action on him: Yes Haigu bidi hakvetsnem (Ես Հայկը պիտի հագուեցնեմ “I will get Haig dressed”). When you are finished, you simply say Haigu hakvetsav (Հայկը հագուեցաւ “Haig got dressed”).
We are left with haknil, which means “to put on.” You say Yes verargoos haknetsa (Ես վերարկուս հագնեցայ), meaning “I put my overcoat on.” This is the formal way to conjugate the verb. Besides, there is an informal way to conjugate it, Yes verargoos hakah (Ես վերարկուս հագայ), which means the same. Is the latter correct? It is actually as correct as the use of khagtsah (խաղցայ) instead of the formal form khaghatsi (խաղացի “I played”) or nusdah (նստայ) instead of the formal form nusdetsah (նստեցայ “I sat down”). You will not find it in grammar books, in the same way that you do not find... “don’t” or “won’t.”
Previous entries in “The Armenian Language Corner” are on the Prelacy’s web site (www.armenianprelacy.org)
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| Fragments of a Lost Homeland: Remembering Armenia
By Armen T. Marsoobian
Armen Marsoobian unfolds his ancestors’ lives through narrative recollections, photographs, and sketch drawings of places and things of a lost time. The author tells of a lost time and people through interweaving of historical background and his family stories.
Fragments of a Lost Homeland: Remembering Armenia, 348 pages, hardcover, $35.00 plus shipping and handling.
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| Like Water on Stone
By Dana Walrath
This novel begins in 1914 in the Armenian Highlands. In the genre of a narrative poem, the author tells the story of twins Shahen and Sosi who have diverging plans for the future: the former has his sights set on New York while the latter does not want to leave her homeland. However, as the genocidal plan of the Ottoman Empire begins to unfold, the siblings carry their little sister Mariam into the mountains to escape the attacks. As they make their way across the mountains, an eagle watches over them.
Like Water on Stone, 353 pages, hardcover, $16.99 plus shipping and handling.
To order contact the Prelacy Bookstore by email (bookstore@armeninprelacy.org) or telephone (212-689-7810.
NEED AN ARMENIAN BOOK?
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| PLEASE DO NOT FORGET:
SYRIAN ARMENIAN COMMUNITY NEEDS OUR HELP MORE THAN EVER
The crisis in Syria requires our financial assistance.
Please keep this community in your prayers, your hearts, and your pocketbooks.
PLEASE DO NOT FORGET OUR ONGOING RELIEF EFFORTS FOR THE ARMENIAN COMMUNITY IN SYRIA WHERE CONDITIONS ARE BECOMING INCREASINGLY MORE DIFFICULT.
THE NEED IS REAL.
THE NEED IS GREAT.
DONATIONS TO THE FUND FOR SYRIAN ARMENIAN RELIEF CAN BE MADE ON LINE. TO DONATE NOW CLICK HERE AND SELECT SYRIAN ARMENIAN RELIEF IN THE MENU. OR IF YOU PREFER YOU MAY MAIL YOUR DONATION TO:
Armenian Prelacy
138 E. 39th Street
New York, NY 10016
Checks payable to: Armenian Apostolic Church of America
(Memo: Syrian Armenian Relief)
Thank you for your help.
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| SIAMANTO ACADEMY—Meets every second Saturday of the month at the Hovnanian School, 817 River Road, New Milford, New Jersey. For information: anec@armenianprelacy.org or 212-689-7810.
December 27—St. Sarkis Church, Dearborn, Michigan, Christmas Carol Sing-a-long following the Divine Liturgy. All are invited to attend.
December 27—Sunday School Christmas Pageant, Sts. Vartanantz Church, 461 Bergen Boulevard, Ridgefield, New Jersey, following the Divine Liturgy. Lunch and dessert served.
January 3—St. Sarkis Church, Dearborn, Michigan, Ladies Guild Christmas Luncheon, Lillian Arakelian Hall. Donation: adults $25; children $10. Special Christmas program and surprises!
January 6—Christmas celebration followed by Avak luncheon, St. Gregory Church, 158 Main Street, North Andover, Massachusetts. Speakers: Yn. Alice Baljian and Elizabeth Blumin, “Healing Oils in the Bible.”
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| Web pages of the parishes can be accessed through the Prelacy’s web site.
To ensure the timely arrival of Crossroads in your electronic mailbox, add email@armenianprelacy.org to your address book.
Items in Crossroads can be reproduced without permission. Please credit Crossroads as the source.
Parishes of the Eastern Prelacy are invited to send information about their major events to be included in the calendar. Send to: info@armenianprelacy.org
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