Window Quarterly Vol. 4, No. 3, 1994 Copyright 1994 [Permission is granted to use, print, reproduce this article provided the following acknowledgment is given: From Window Quarterly 4, 3 (1994); ACRAG c. 1994. *** THE POWER OF TRUTH [non-Armenians in the Armenian Church] by Dave Luhrssen Why did you join the Armenian Church? Sometimes my reply to Armenians has been jocular: "The Armenian women's guild are better cooks than their Catholic or Protestant counterparts." My occasional glibness has served as a protective cover for the disappointed recognition that many lifelong members of the Armenian Church don't realize the treasure we have and don't see the universality of our Church's mission. It also covers the painful realization that the Armenian Church in North America has not always argued eloquently against those who write it off as an anachronism. The real reasons I joined the Armenian Church have nothing to do with bouregs or baklava. I became a member because: 1) The Armenian Church is part of the true Church and continues to teach the undiluted truth about God and humanity, even if it has sometimes been slow to relate those truths to contemporary social problems; and 2) My Armenian parish lives out the spirit of our faith in a family-like relationship with one another and through hospitality to strangers, like the way I was treated on my first Sunday in church. Let me begin by addressing the first reason. The Armenian Church does not have a monopoly on truth. It is one of five Oriental Orthodox Churches and is closely related to the larger family of Orthodoxy, the Eastern Orthodox. The word orthodox comes from the Greek for "correct opinion," i.e., truth, and the preservation of truth is the premise on which our view of Christianity is based. How was Christ understood by his apostles and followers and the men and women who succeeded them? The answer lies in Orthodoxy. To those who believe that humanity should continually recreate Christ according to passing whims and fashions, the Orthodox can say nothing. But for those who believe that Truth became incarnate in Palestine at the beginning of the Christian Era, there is no alternative to the Orthodox Church. It is the only institution to preserve the faith of the apostles, neither adding to the Tradition of early Christianity nor subtracting from it. I felt drawn back to Christianity after I was brought to the realization that agnosticism, the tenet of my adult life, provided neither peace of mind nor sense of purpose. But I could not return to the Protestant Christianity of my background. Even as an adolescent it seemed shallow and strangely distant from the world of the Bible. Roman Catholicism was not an attractive alternative. Rome's positions on the papacy and other defining issues resulted not from theological insight but from an unfortunate chain of historical events. With the collapse of the Roman Empire came a Dark Age in which the learning of the Eastern Mediterranean, Christianity's cultural matrix, was lost. This left Orthodoxy. I began my journey to the East by reading a book - a Milwaukee Yellow Pages, seeking names and addresses of Orthodox churches - and commenced six enlightening months of parish hopping. Because Armenian Churches are not listed in the phone book under Orthodox but Armenian Apostolic, I almost overlooked them. On an educated guess that Armenians were Orthodox, I visited the Greenfield, Wisconsin parish on Sunday before the earthquake of 1988 (in Armenia). It was not long before I returned. What struck me almost instantly about Orthodoxy was the unique applicability of our time of the liturgy, Byzantine or Armenian. Those who decry it as a museum exhibit are themselves destined for the museum. We are on the road to a "post-literate" society, a visual age in which learning will be accomplished less by the written word and more by visualization. The hour-long sermons of historical Protestantism are not the wave of the future. It is the Orthodox liturgy that has much to offer the children of the video era. The liturgy is a visual and mystical reenactment of the Word, of Christ's mission, culminating in the Eucharist, the sharing of Christ's body by his believers. And the liturgy has an advantage that no video has: It is three dimensional, it takes place around the participants in real time. Non-Armenian friends who accompany me to liturgy seem more aware than many Armenians that our ancient rite is as contemporary as today. The same people who snicker at Vatican II "folk masses," which yoke worship to an outdated musical fad, leave the Armenian liturgy in awe of its profound spirituality. My second reason for joining the Armenian Church was the Armenians I discovered there. For the most part they weren't scholars who could answer my questions about the Council of Chalcedon. They didn't need to be. The Armenians I met at that first coffee hour five years ago seemed to live their theology in small acts of consideration and fellowship. It is often through the example of its members that parishes gain new members. It is primarily through them that I became Armenian rather than Greek or Coptic Orthodox. The Armenian Church has a special responsibility to bear witness to Armenians in the homeland and the Diaspora, but is also a component of the One Catholic and Apostolic Holy Church (cited every Sunday in our creed). The survival of Armenian language and culture in North America is a task for the Church but cannot be its main mission. To present ourselves as a cultural organization first and as the Church second will continue to spur the exit of young Armenian- Americans, tired of priests who preach Karabagh instead of Christ, and preclude our spiritual mission to the world. I was shocked to hear an Armenian cleric offer the following reason for maintaining Armenian as the language of the liturgy: "If we do it in English then why wouldn't people go to the Catholic Church instead?" The answer is that we have much more to offer the world than the Armenian language. The theology of the Armenian and other components of the Orthodox Church answers many questions raised by those who have turned their back on Christianity. I know. I was one of them. Language was not an issue when I joined the Armenian Church. Truth was. I don't think I am unique. The Armenian Church has a message for Americans, not just for those of Armenian ancestry but people from every country and continent. Our Church must stop apologizing for itself to outsiders and creatively communicate its teachings to our society. Our's is a Church with a particular ethnic heritage and mission but also a Church whose relevance crosses all borders. The Epistle message, "There is neither Jew nor Greek... for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:28) applies as well to Hye and odar in one Church. The Armenian Church needs to rekindle the missionary zeal of Sts. Thaddeus and Bartholomew, of Gregory the Illuminator and Mesrob Mashdotz. "Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding" (Matt. 22:9). *** =================================================== _ _ _ _ _ |_| ___ _| | ___ _ _ _ | | | | | | _ / _ \ / _ | / _ \ | | | | | | | |_| |_| || |_ | | | || |_| || |_| || |_| |_| | \_________/\___||_| |_| \___/ \___/ \_________/ View Of The Armenian Church ===================================================