Who Will Lead the Armenian Church in the New Millennium?

By Arakel A. Arisian
Staff Writer

When the Catholicos of All Armenians, His Holiness Karekin I Sarkissian, passed away this summer, the Armenian Church was left without a leader. This unfortunate event forced the Armenian Church to revisit many of the issues concerned with the selection of a Catholicos. The Armenian Church has two sees, the Holy See of Etchmiadzin and the Holy See of Cilicia. Catholicos Karekin I was unique because he had been Catholicos of the Holy See of Cilicia for 18 years when he was elected to the position of Catholicos of All Armenians. That was the first time the Catholicos of All Armenians was elected from the position of Catholicos of the Holy See of Cilicia. Since his election had unique circumstances many believed that there would be many changes under Catholicos Karekin’s leadership. Now the Church is required to elect a new leader.

On July 4, 1999, a meeting of the Supreme Spiritual Council and the Episcopal College was held to elect the Locum Tenens of the Catholicosate. The Locum Tenens serves as the temporary leader of the Church until an election is held. The Chancellor of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Archbishop Nerses Bozabalyan, was elected with 24 votes. The only other clergy to receive votes were Archbishop Karekin Nersissian (10 votes) and Bishop Vigen Aykazian (1 vote).

There have been a number of important issues pertaining to the election of the 132nd Catholicos of the Holy See of Etchmiadzin. First is the date of the election. According to the Constitution of the Armenian Church, an election shall be called by the Locum Tenens six months to one year after the Catholicos’s death. There is a sense of urgency in the Church to choose someone by the end of this year. There are many time sensitive issues, principally the planning for the celebration of the 1700th Anniversary of the Armenian Christianity. At the meeting of the Supreme Spiritual Council, a decision was made to hold the election of the Catholicos on October 26-31. This was a big change since the election was moved up a few months.

Another area of concern is the number of voting participants in the Assembly, which consists of 452 delegates. There are 47 bishops and 405 lay voters, theoretically one per 25,000 parishioners. There was discussion about lowering the number of lay delegates to make the whole process easier, but there were so many concerns about representation that no changes were made. There is ongoing debate about how to determine the number of representatives each community receives at the Assembly. It is difficult to count the true number of parishioners for each area. How will the Assembly determine who counts as s parishioner? Seeing this discrepancy, some proposed a categorized system of choosing the number of votes for each community. For example, a community with 200,000 to 500,000 parishioners would get three votes and a community with 500,000 or more parishioners would get four votes. The question is how to divide up the categories. The current system will be used since not enough people supported the proposed changes.

All bishops and archbishops are eligible to be candidates. The list of candidates for the position includes: Primate of Yerevan – Archbishop Karekin Nersissian; Primate of Karabagh – Archbishop Barkev Mardirossian; the Patriarch of Turkey Archbishop – Mesrob Mutafyan; and Primate of Moscow – Archbishop Diran Gureghian. Although most of the candidates are interested, some are reported as not wanting the position, notably locum tenens Archbishop Bozabalyan. Aram I, Catholicos of the Holy See of Cilicia, and Primate of the Eastern Diocese of America – Archbishop Khajag Barsamian both stated that they are not candidates for the position. Most people feel Archbishop Nersissian is the front-runner since on the first ballot in 1995 election he received the most votes, 112 ahead of the closest candidate, who was Catholicos Karekin I. Many believe he would have been elected if the government at that time had not persuaded him to withdraw.

The free and independent Republic of Armenia is at a crucial juncture in its history. The Armenian Genocide and 70 years of Soviet rule have severely depleted the number of qualified clergy. Then, there is the question of church unity. Beyond that the new Catholicos will have the responsibility of coordinating the celebrations of the 2000th anniversary of Christ’s birth and the 1700th anniversary of Armenian Christianity. The importance of this upcoming election cannot be overestimated. As Armenians around the world mourn the loss of their dedicated Catholicos, they also wait to find out who will lead the Armenian Church into the next millennium.