Day: January 11, 2024
Months after announcing that the La Crescenta parish will have its own church, the Western Prelacy announced that construction on the new Holy Archangels Church has begun and is being closely overseen by Western Prelate Bishop Torkom Donyan, Asbarez reports.
“We are hopeful that by mid-year the church will be ready to be officially anointed by His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia,” Bishop Donoyan said in a statement last week.
The Western Prelacy announced in May that the new La Crescenta Church, whose benefactors are Mr. & Mrs. Varant and Hoori Melkonian, will be named “Holy Archangels” Church, with the blessing from Catholicos Aram I.
Community leaders and benefactors Varant and Hoori Melkonian announced a generous donation and became the lead contributors of the new church. They also asked that the church be dedicated to in memory of Varant Melkonian’s father, Melkon, and to honor his mother, Angel, for whom the church was named “Holy Archangels.”
“Varant and Hoori Melkonian are not only a permanent presence in our community through their hard work and support, they are also always ready to ensure that community projects are successful. They bring their unwavering contribution to projects that aim to elevate our nation, homeland and the Western Prelacy through their generosity,” Prelate Donoyan said last March of the couple who have been bestowed with the “Cilician Prince” medal by the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia.
A special committee, comprised of professionals specializing in the fields of architecture and construction, is overseeing the renovation and redesign of the building, which will house the Holy Archangels Church and comply with architectural motifs of the Armenian Church.
U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee member Joaquin Castro (D-TX) hosted a Congressional briefing last week calling attention to escalating attacks by developers seeking to seize land from Jerusalem’s sacred Armenian Quarter to build luxury hotels, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
“We want to thank Representative Castro for shining a much-needed Congressional spotlight on the escalation of violent attacks against Jerusalem’s Armenian Quarter – a central pillar of Christendom, a true treasure for all faith traditions,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “It was encouraging to see such a broad array of legislators represented in this comprehensive Capitol Hill briefing on the legal, political, and spiritual aspects of this crisis.”
The January 5th briefing featured testimony from Daniel Seidemann, a globally respected Israeli lawyer and expert on Jerusalem; Hagop Djernazian, a leader of the Save The ArQ Movement defending the rights of the Jerusalem Armenian Quarter; and Karnig Kerkonian, a prominent U.S.-based attorney representing the community in the ongoing legal dispute over the land.
Over the past several months, Israeli developers have sought to seize land from the Armenian Quarter for private commercial real estate projects. On December 28th, in the wake of civil society pushback from the indigenous Armenian community, an angry mob of masked men, apparently mobilized and directed by the developers, brutally attacked a dozen Armenians, including the clergy.
The Armenian Quarter is an integral part of the Old City of Jerusalem – with the Armenian presence in the city dating back to the 4th century AD, when, after Armenia became the first nation to adopt Christianity as a national religion, Armenian monks settled in Jerusalem.
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NPR News: 01-11-2024 2AM EST
A criminal case against foreign nationals Yazdan Shenas Khales Hossein Ramezanali and Javidankhelan Ehsan Hossein, the preliminary investigation of which has been completed by the State Security Service of the Republic of Azerbaijan, has been submitted to the Baku Court of Grave Crimes, Azernews reports.