The Auxiliaries of Mayr Yegeghetsi

Nov 14, 2025

The Auxiliaries of Mayr Yegeghetsi

A Building for the Future: 219 East 27th Street

 

There is no tangible monument of stewardship at Mayr Yegeghetsi more patent and prominent than the modest apartment building that stands next door. While she is beautiful by the standards of contemporary architecture, there is little that distinguishes 217-219 East 27th Street from other buildings of her vintage, which, when she was built in 1906, were practically mass-produced in Manhattan. Yet, all of six-stories tall with twenty-four apartments and a tiny elevator, what she has done for Mayr Yegeghetsi over the decades is breathtaking. When Mayr Yegeghetsi’s founding generation purchased the Cathedral building from the Crawford M.E. Church, the apartment building came with her as part of the deal. Like most episodes in the history of our Church, the story of the apartment building is a drama of its own. Purchase her the founding generation had the prudence and foresight to do, but they would not hold her for long. Mayr Yegeghetsi lost ownership and possession of the building during the Great Depression. The modern history of the building begins in 1974, when a new generation of stewards found their opportunity and reacquired her. Led by Michael Azarian and Jack Chadrjian, of blessed memory, they were worthy stewards indeed..

“Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received..”

— 1 Peter 4:10

This remarkable photo strikingly illustrates Mayr Yegeghetsi’s metropolitan location in midtown Manhattan and identifies her as the true New Yorker she is. It also shows the changes her environs were undergoing in the early 1960s as the Armenian population migrated away from “Little Armenia,” which is how the Rose Hill and Murray neighborhoods were known because of the concentration of Armenians who had settled there beginning around the turn of the Twentieth century. Appropriately, the photo also serves as an iconic portrait of our humble yet magnificent Mayr Yegeghetsi “complex.”

The façade of the apartment building with her fire escapes is also iconically New York.

Since then, the apartment building became and remains the Cathedral’s principal single source of income and, in tough times, was a lifeline without which Mayr Yegeghetsi could not have survived financially. As the fortunes of New York real estate have risen, so too has the income-generating potential of this precious asset. We are not talking about big New York real estate money. Like Mayr Yegeghetsi herself, the building and the cash flow she generates is modest and human-scale. But for us that income is heaven-sent. We are fortunate to enjoy this revenue, which, by going a long way toward covering our annual operating expenses, relieves pressure on our budget and frees us to use the other income we generate to support and develop our ministry.

In this milestone year, we are mindful to remember and honor with gratitude our predecessors in leadership who, to provide for Mayr Yegeghetsi and her future, had the prudence and foresight to acquire the little apartment building next door.

Service at Mayr Yegeghetsi

Nov 7, 2025


Service at Mayr Yegeghetsi

We are Grateful

 

Our Mayr Yegeghetsi is not a building. It is a fellowship, a community of Christians that comprise the body of Christ. The indispensable elements of fellowship and community are presence and participation. Another is service: service to one another; service to community; service to God. Whether that service is on the Altar or in the Choir, on the Ladies Guild, or to our schools, or in the numerous other selfless ways Church volunteers give of themselves, such acts of devotion are manifestations of Christian love, faith, and fellowship, and the ministry of the Church depends upon them.

Pictured with Der Mesrob, in front: Deacon Sarkis Apelian, Choirmaster Anahit Zakaryan, Archdeacon Shant Kazanjian, Deacon Dickran Kabarajian, Tatevik Sukiasian, Christopher Nazarian; and on the Altar: Hakob Keymetlyan, Armen Morian, Aram Parnagian, and Mark Dilsizian. Absent from the photo is our organist, Ara Dinkjian.

 

“Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness”

— Psalms 100:1-2

 

We are profoundly grateful and express our thanks to our many parishioners, living and departed, who year-in and year-out have given their time and talents for the greater glory of God and the success of our Mayr Yegeghetsi, and without whose devotion we could not possibly carry out our ministry. They include all who have served on her Altar; who have sang in her Choir or played the organ; who have served on her Board or as NRA delegates or in other elected positions; who have taught in her Sunday and Saturday Armenian schools; who have been members of her incomparable Ladies Guild, Mr. and Mrs. Clubs, and other auxiliaries, such as the basketball team; who have written, edited or, prepared Mayr Yegeghetsi newsletter and her other publications; who have organized, presented, or performed at her cultural and social events; who have served her as church secretary or zhamgoch or on the Building board; who have donated their services as professionals, or who have given money, time or other resources to Mayr Yegeghetsi or who have stood as faithful friends of Mayr Yegeghetsi in good times and bad.

Lalig Vartanian, Arevig Caprielian, and Mireille Babikian-Hanna, with Der Mesrob.

“By love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”

— Galatians 5:13-14

H. H. Aram I proclaimed 2024 as the “Year of Manpower.” But his call to service is forever timely. For the Church to function and flourish, every year must be the year of manpower. The work of the Church is never done. To do it, in this time as in all times, requires many categories of skills, in the professions, the trades, the crafts, the arts, and beyond. In short, it requires manpower. There is practically no skill that is not potentially relevant to the Church and no contribution of time or talent too small. And service does not necessarily mean a continuing obligation; it may be a single act to help us when we need help. Whether one has a single hour to give or a thousand, everyone’s contributions are an invaluable resource to our Church and our community. We invite you to step forward and join our manpower resources and help us invite others as well.

Labor of Love

Oct 31, 2025


Labor of Love:

Mayr Yegeghetsi’s Noble and Most Romantic Service

 

By Armen Morian

Next to Armenian Christian formation and Armenian education, the most important role the Armenian Church in America has played is that of wholesome intermediary for young Armenian couples to meet, marry, and start new families. Every church may be said to serve the role of creating new families by performing the sacrament of marriage. But the lengths to which Mayr Yegeghetsi went following the Genocide is truly the stuff of romantic legend and worthy of the most affectionate retelling.

One of the most remarkable vignettes in the storied history of Mayr Yegeghetsi was an undertaking by the Cathedral in its earliest years to make matches between young Armenian women who were living in the orphanages and homes of Lebanon and Syria and young Armenian men who had emigrated to the United States, many before the Genocide, to work in the factories and mills of the industrial Northeast and Midwest.

The men in America were invited to send photos of themselves looking their best. Mayr Yegeghetsi arranged for the photos to be delivered to the Forty Martyrs Armenian Church in Aleppo, Syria, where the young women from the orphanages and homes were invited to come, to view and choose from among them a potential husband. When the women had made a choice, Mayr Yegeghetsi facilitated a correspondence between the potential couples. If the correspondence flourished and a relationship blossomed, and the couples were inclined, arrangements were made to travel under sponsorship to New York, the brides-to-be sailing from the Near East and the grooms-to-be coming by train from the Northeast and Midwest.

 

 

Mary Dugan’s parents, Misag and Zevart Megrdichian, of blessed memory, on their wedding day at Mayr Yegeghetsi, in 1921.

Hampartsoom Hamparian and Armaveni Kazarian, of blessed memory, from Sepastia, married at Mayr Yegeghetsi in the 1920s.

Here in New York, the couples met at Mayr Yegeghetsi where under her chaperoneship they were provided an opportunity for a few days to test the chemistry of their potential match in person, while being squired around the city to see the magnificent sights of Jazz Age New York. After a few days, the couples faced a choice: to marry or not to marry. Those who chose not to marry returned home. Those who had found their mate were wed at Mayr Yegeghetsi on Sunday. On Monday, the new brides would accompany their new husbands back to the American cities the young men had come from, where they embarked on their new lives as married couples, to make for themselves and all of us a new Armenia in their new homes in America.

To facilitate this matchmaking on scale, Mayr Yegeghetsi maintained a wardrobe of wedding dresses, the same one in different sizes, with which the brides were outfitted for their weddings, and had a photographer on hand to capture the moments.

The wedding of Onnik and Araksi Dinkjian, officiated by Rev. Fr. Arsen Simoniantz, in 1954.

The wedding of Peter and Terry Jelalian, of blessed memory, officiated by Rev. Fr. Arsen Simoniantz, in 1949.

We do not know how many such weddings there were, but we do know a beautiful child of one of those weddings. She is our very own, beloved super-parishioner Mary Dugan, 101 years old, who has come to church, on her own, every Sunday, for six decades, and who for many of those decades has been the doyenne of the young who come to Mayr Yegeghetsi and surround her with their Fellowship.

Other introductions and acts of matchmaking at Mayr Yegeghetsi were more immediate, such as the one that resulted in the wedding in the 1920s of Hampartsoom Hamparian of Sepastia, to Armaveni Kazarian of Sepastia, at St. Illuminator’s. They were introduced to each other and married by Rev. Azaria Boyajian.

The wedding of Avedis and Rosemary Alashaian, Avedis of blessed memory, officiated by Rev. Fr. Arsen Simoniantz, in 1957. Note the Altar icon, which was a substitute for Fetfejian’s Madonna and Child, away at the time for conservation.

But Mayr Yegeghetsi is also known for creating other wholesome opportunities, too, for young Armenians to meet: the many socials, hops, and dances she sponsored for more than a century. While these did not have the same dramatic character as her epic post-Genocide matchmaking, they were no less important, creating occasions for countless Armenian couples to meet and eventually marry, including one such couple who met at a dance sponsored by Mayr Yegeghetsi at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights in September of 1960. That couple were my beloved parents, Vazgen and Arpi Muradian, of blessed memory.

“What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder”

— Matthew 19:6

The wedding of then-Deacon Krikor and soon-to-be Yeretsgeen Ojeen Lakissian, presided and officiated by Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan, joined by Archbishop Zareh Aznavourian, of blessed memory, then-Very Rev. Fr. now Archbishop Anoushavan Tanielian, Very Rev. Fr. Navasart Mardoyan, and Rev. Fr. Moushegh Der Kaloustian, of blessed memory, December 23, 2000.

On the Altar: Hayr Anoushavan, Oshagan Srpazan, Hayr Navasart, Der Moushegh, and Deacon Shant Kazanjian. Holding the cross as Gnkahayr or Best Man is Der Mesrob’s brother, Harout Lakissian, who now serves as Mukhtar of Anjar.

And of course, Mayr Yegeghetsi has also provided opportunities for couples to meet in the most whole-some of ways while serving the Church. One such extra-special couple are our very own pastor, Der Mesrob and our Yeretsgeen Ojeen, who met right here at Mayr Yegeghetsi when Der Mesrob served on her Altar as a deacon and Yeretsgeen sang in her Choir.

No chronicle of Mayr Yegeghetsi or understanding of her importance could be complete without recognizing and venerating the signal role she played since her founding in midwifing the creation of new Armenian families and new Armenians. The romantic narrative arc of Mayr Yegeghetsi‘s post-Genocide matchmaking exemplifies her special role in the life of Armenians in America and the rebirth and renewal of the Armenian nation.

The Martyrs Altar Turns 25

Oct 24, 2025

The Martyrs Altar Turns 25:

A New Shrine in an Historic Church

 

By Iris Papazian †

[This article originally appeared in the commemorative book for the 100th Anniversary of Mayr Yegeghetsi. It is reprinted here in loving memory of Iris Papazian.]

On April 24, 2000, a moving ceremony took place in New York’s historic St. Illuminator’s Cathedral. A congregation of more than four hundred, including representatives from New England and Mid-Atlantic parishes, watched as Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan, Prelate of the Eastern Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America, consecrated a new altar in the church, dedicated to the memory of the 1.5 million Armenians massacred by the Turkish Ottoman Empire in the genocide that began in 1915.

This year on April 24—the 100th anniversary of that genocide—Archbishop Oshagan celebrated a solemn Divine Liturgy at the Martyrs Altar, and for seven days following offered prayers during evening services in front of the altar that now seemed to take on new luster because of the canonization of the Martyrs of April on April 23, 2015, in ceremonies in Holy Etchmiadzin presided by His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, and His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Holy See of the Great House of Cilicia.

The austere altar of black marble, incised with a map of historic Armenia and crowned by a glass case containing part of a skeleton lying in sand, is graphic testimony to a terrible chapter in Armenian history: the forced deportation marches in which hundreds of thousands of defenseless people, most of them women and children and the aged, were sent into the Syrian desert to be killed, or to die of starvation, heat, and thirst.

The Martyrs Altar was designed and executed by a collaboration of the architects Dikran Tenguerian and Vache Aslanian. Tenguerian also executed Mayr Yegeghetsi’s Cathedral sign which appears in the tympanum over her entrance doors. The painting hanging on the Altar is the work of Kevork Mourad.

 

Erecting the altar was Archbishop Oshagan’s dream. Two years earlier—in 1998—Dr. Herand Markarian, an Armenian American playwright, went to the desert site of Deir El Zor where some of the worst massacres took place. He went into the caves where the remains of the massacred Armenians could still be found, and brought them to the U.S. He presented the sacred relics to the Prelate, who then firmly developed the plan of giving these bones a permanent resting place of honor, “publicly displayed, so our youth will remember,” he said.

The relics enshrined in the Martyrs Altar are believed to be those of a teenaged girl who perished in the desert at Deir el Zor.

Generous sponsorship to design and build the new altar came from Carl and Emma Sogoian of Detroit, Michigan, who were present as Archbishop Oshagan spoke the words of consecration, and passed to them the first of hundreds of lit candles that ultimately filled the interior of the Cathedral.

In his sermon, the Prelate said, “This will be an altar for hope and light; a place for meeting with our martyrs, where Armenian Americans will come to pray, and to renew their sense of Armenian identity.” As for 54 100th ANNIVERSARY | 1915–2015 the denial of the Armenian genocide by Turkey, the Archbishop said, “We will not forget, and cannot forgive until they accept responsibility, because forgiveness must come from the victims themselves.”

 

“O Christ, crowner of the saints . . . through the supplications of the Holy Martyrs who were massacred during the Armenian Genocide . . . Hear us, O Lord, and have mercy.”

— From the prayer of intercession in the Zhamakirk

On March 12, 2016, H. E. Archbishop Oshagan consecrated icons of the Holy Martyrs of the Armenian Genocide. Each parish of the Eastern Prelacy received a consecrated copy of the original, which hangs in Mayr Yegeghetsi. The icons are the work of Rudik Petrosyan.

On March 12, 2016, H. E. Archbishop Oshagan consecrated icons of the Holy Martyrs of the Armenian Genocide. Each parish of the Eastern Prelacy received a consecrated copy of the original, which hangs in Mayr Yegeghetsi. The icons are the work of Rudik Petrosyan.

Participants in the consecration ceremony of the Martyrs Icons, with H. E. Archbishop Oshagan.

The history of St. Illuminator’s Cathedral, oldest of the city’s Armenian churches, has been linked from the start with the genocide. Founded in 1915—the year the massacres began—in a building purchased from the Rose Hill Methodist Episcopal Church, it became the religious, social, and charitable center for the survivors.

The two Catholicoi declared on April 23, 2015: We canonize the Martyrs of the Armenian Genocide and declare April 24 to be the day of Commemoration of the Holy Martyrs, who were killed during the Armenian Genocide for faith and homeland…and now, Holy Martyrs, remembering you eternally, in prayerful supplication, we appeal to you: Receive our prayers and intercede for us so that we too, with fearless love, may also continually glorify the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

The Martyrs Altar at St. Illuminator’s Cathedral is now a true pilgrimage site where pilgrims will come to pray to the Martyrs seeking their intercession.

 

The Story Behind the History of St. Illuminator’s Cathedral

Oct 17, 2025

The Little Cathedral That Could:

The Story Behind the History of St. Illuminator’s Cathedral

 

by Armen Morian 

 

This year marks the 110th since the founding of our cherished Mayr Yegeghetsi [St. Illuminator’s Armenian Apostolic Church in New York City]. The story of the birth of our Church is the stuff of romantic legend. In the most Providential of historical coincidences, the founding fathers and founding mothers of our Church did their work at the very same moment that the tragedy of the Armenian Genocide began to unfold.

As Armenian civilization was being extinguished in our homeland, they brought forth on these shores, in this city, an establishment that would play a signal role in the rebirth of the Armenian nation. Every Armenian church is a special place. But the deep and providential symbolism of that coincidence is a genuine testament to the uncommon specialness of this one. For the five score and ten years since, our Church has been a Plymouth Rock, a landing point and touchpoint in the religious and cultural lives of more than five generations of Armenians in America.

We continue that proud tradition of service to the spiritual and cultural needs of the Armenian communities of New York and beyond, as one of the oldest and most historical and most significant Armenian churches in the United States, and Armenian America’s Ellis Island Church.

From the foundation up and the bricks and mortar in, we rose again.

The history of St. Illuminator’s, “the little Church on 27th Street,” as the big stage upon which played out some of the most dramatic events in the history of the Armenian nation, the Armenian American Diaspora, and the Armenian Church, in the twentieth century, is well-known. What is less well-known is the intimate story of Mayr Yegeghetsi, the human institution, and its struggles and triumphs. As is often so of great institutions, those histories of St. Illuminator’s stand against one another as a paradox.

On one side was the St. Illuminator’s that occupied an outsized place of honor in the Armenian imagination, majestic, relevant, and larger than life. On the other, was the very modest, even humble, human-scale institution that, while rich in love and human resources, was nevertheless often neglected and chronically starved of material resources. The history of St. Illuminator’s was always fraught, as the human institution found itself caught up in and the victim of historical forces outside its control, ranging from the controversies of international politics and the politics of the Armenian Church to the historical and demographic forces that were remaking the Armenian American community outside its doors. She was often neglected and sometimes, for reasons hard to comprehend, even ostracized as a red-headed stepchild.

What sustained St. Illuminator’s throughout her history was not the material resources befitting an episcopal seat that one might expect would be available to a Mayr Yegeghetsi, but rather the love, devotion, and sacrifices of her parishioners and the community she nourished spiritually.

 

“Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and prosper for us the work of our hands” — Psalm 90:17.
While it is an eternal truth that the ministry of a Church does not rest on material resources, but on the fellowship and acts of Christian faith, love, devotion, and service of its people, never more was that so than with Mayr Yegeghetsi. What material resources Mayr Yegeghetsi and her people were able to summon from among their own, from her earliest days to her most recent, were devoted to serving others: to taking care of the orphans of the Genocide and families scattered to the four corners of the World; to the newcomers she welcomed to America through her doors; to the relief of her brothers and sisters suffering hardship during the Great Depression; to the support of the displaced persons of war resettled in America by the efforts of ANCHA; to the support of a newly independent Armenia after the collapse of the Soviet Union; and throughout to educating and inculcating new generations of Armenian Christians. Those acts of selfless devotion were directed outward. But they came at a price: the physical decline of Mayr Yegeghetsi the temporal institution.
The Blessing of the Grapes after Soorp Badarak by Der Mesrob, on the movable Altar at the Woodside Center, set up and taken down every Sunday, with Deacon Shant Kazanjian, August 2009.

During her long and storied history, our Mayr Yegeghetsi endured her share of hard times, none harder perhaps than the period immediately before a promising, newly ordained, young Der Hayr named Mesrob Lakissian assumed the awesome responsibility for shepherding her, arriving with his energetic Yeretsgeen Ojeen and their infant daughter, Taleen, by his side.

By the time Der Mesrob became pastor, Mayr Yegeghetsi was ninety years old and showing every bit of her age. The ravages of time on an ancient building that had been held together by love’s labors and the sheer will of her parishioners, diminished attendance resulting from the out-migration of Armenians from the heart of New York City to the suburbs, tensions within the Church and turmoil in the succession of her leadership, all took their toll on the Cathedral, physically, financially, spiritually. St. Illuminator’s retained her majesty as our Mayr Yegeghetsi, maintaining her dignity and the devotion of her faithful, but she had fallen into magnificent decrepitude, her finances in shambles.

The ceremony of Reconsecration, September 19, 2009.

Der Mesrob’s reward for being appointed the 27th pastor of St. Illuminator’s was to inherit an institution not just in serious decline, but on the verge of collapse, figuratively and literally.

Those were hardscrabble days indeed when Der Hayr assumed his heavy burden. The Cathedral often had only a nominal balance in her bank account, often lacking sufficient funds to even pay the electric bill, and had to rely on credit extended to her by members of her Board and her most devoted donors to get by from month to month.

Worse than that, her physical space had deteriorated to such a state of fragility that in places her floors had worn through to the point that one could see from the Nave into Pashalian Hall. What Mayr Yegeghetsi needed was not repair but a gut renovation from the foundation up and the bricks and mortar in. And to do it would require raising more than one million dollars.

Fortunately, owing to his decade of service at the Prelacy and fifteen years as a deacon on her Holy Altar before becoming pastor, Der Hayr was no stranger to Mayr Yegeghetsi, and Mayr Yegeghetsi was no stranger to Der Hayr. Undaunted and with a vision for what Mayr Yegeghetsi could once more be, Der Mesrob literally rolled up his sleeves and got to work. Somehow, through sheer force of personality, fortitude, tireless hard work, faith, and the interposition of Divine providence in favor of their labors, Der Hayr, supported by a Board who loyally and faithfully stood by his side, donors many of whom unexpectedly appeared from nowhere, and a remarkable team of rebuilders led by the late, great Setrak Agonian, of blessed memory, raised the necessary funds—more than $1 million—and swiftly completed the renovation, against all odds.

The Altar and Chancel as they appear today.

On April 1, 2008, the Mayr Yegeghetsi ‘that was’ closed her doors for the last time—doors that had stood open since her consecration in April 1920. The renovation would take eighteen months. During that time came additional hardships. Mayr Yegeghetsi had to continue as a Vemkar church. Services were held at the erstwhile Armenian Center in Woodside, Queens. Celebrating the Diving Liturgy there required setting up and then dismantling a moveable Altar every Sunday. Candles were not permitted and it was not possible to perform sacraments.

Yet throughout, Mayr Yegeghetsi held her head high and never once sought assistance or a reprieve. Her renovation was entirely self-funded, owing to the tireless labors of Der Mesrob and the team he led and the generosity of countless members of St. Illuminator’s community who responded by opening their hearts and their wallets. And even during the bleakest, most difficult days financially Mayr Yegeghetsi paid her quota to the Prelacy in full and on time, without fail.

St. Illuminator’s reopened her doors and was reconsecrated on September 19, 2009. Her reconstruction was a resurrection of Mayr Yegeghetsi and heralded a new dawn.

“Heavenly King,
preserve your
Church unshaken.”

— From the Sharagan
Khorhoort Khorin

Under Der Hayr’s leadership, from the hard work of the reconstruction, Mayr Yegeghetsi turned immediately to the task of rebuilding and restoring her social, spiritual, and cultural vitality. Above all, Der Hayr focused on his ministry, which is characterized by a tireless and selfless ethic of service. His devotion to service quietly built St. Illuminator’s into an institution that attracted the attention, captured the imagination, and earned the trust of potential benefactors, many of whom sought out Der Hayr and St. Illuminator’s despite having no historical connection to Mayr Yegeghetsi. One of those benefactors was our beloved Azadouhi Zarukian, of blessed memory, whose spectacularly generous gift to the Cathedral stood St. Illuminator’s on a solid foundation financially for the first time in her history and has inspired others to give generously as well.

This measure of financial stability has afforded Mayr Yegeghetsi the freedom to shift her gaze from survival to the sublime, where it ought to be: the invigoration and flourishment and further development of Mayr Yegeghestsi’s ministry across the board from the religious, to the charitable, to the educational, to the cultural, and above all, to the benevolent.

Now, let’s get back to work . . .

As always, Mayr Yegeghetsi does not measure herself by the resources available to her, but by what she does with them. We measure our success first and foremost by the charitable resources we are able to deliver in support of our Armenian brothers and sisters in need in Armenia, Artsakh, Lebanon, Syria, and wherever they may be found. During the past five years, we were blessed to have been able to deliver nearly $500,000 of such relief through the Catholicosate at Antelias, the Prelacy’s charitable office in Armenia, and our own channels. When the Catholicosate or the Prelacy calls, we dutifully answer to the maximum extent the prudent management of our resources permits, even contributing from time to time when it is neither asked nor expected. And we will measure our success in the years ahead by our ability to continue and expand our giving. Christ calls us to this mission and we will answer the call.

 

“Let the favor of the Lord
our God be upon us and
prosper for us the work
of our hands”

— Psalm 90:17

Like a Christian Phoenix, Mayr Yegeghetsi rose from her ashes and was reborn physically and financially. But the Church is not a building with a bank account. It is a fellowship, a community of Christians that comprise the body of Christ. The indispensable element to fellowship and community is presence and participation. And that brings us full circle to the truest sign of our rebirth as a parish. The real highlight of the period described by Der Mesrob’s ministry and the one about which we are the most joyful may be seen at Mayr Yegeghetsi in the faces of our people. The energy is palpable. It can be felt, and seen, in the young new faces we see at Mayr Yegeghetsi, Sunday in and Sunday out, and measured by the presence, participation, and support of our events by our parishioners and friends. Somehow, in spite of the odds, in a secular Metropolis, in an age of distraction when faceless and ruthless cultural forces alienate us from our traditions and one another, Mayr Yegeghetsi’s family manages to grow. With each new face we welcome and familiar face we welcome back, we count a blessing, as they lift us up with their presence, participation, and promise. Not half bad for the little Cathedral that could.

Success is not linear. It must be measured by where one has been and what one has overcome. By that measure, Mayr Yegeghetsi is stronger today than she has been in living memory, perhaps ever. There is nothing inevitable about that success. It is Providence smiling upon the hard work we do to sustain our ministry, the reward for our toil.

The history of Mayr Yegeghetsi reflects the romance of the Armenian story itself: of struggle and survival; of perseverance and renewal; of rising from the ashes to build a new Armenia; of a leap of faith. Mayr Yegeghetsi stands as a testament to the idea that with hard work and belief all things are possible.

We have always walked with humility and our newly earned success will not change that. With the grace of almighty God, together we will write new chapters of Mayr Yegeghetsi’s story worthy of the ones that came before.

2025: A Year of Reflection, Celebration

Oct 10, 2025

2025: A Year of Reflection, Celebration

By Dr. Herand M. Markarian

 

[Earlier versions of this article appeared in the commemorative books for the 75th and 95th Anniversaries of Mayr Yegeghetsi.]

 

 

The hundred and tenth anniversary of Saint Illuminator’s Armenian Apostolic Cathedral, affectionately called the Mother Church (Mayr Yegeghetsi), marks a proud accomplishment in the history of the Armenian Diaspora and deserves the jubilation of all of us.

Whenever we celebrate an anniversary of an organization or an institution, I ask myself, what is it really that we are celebrating?

Anniversaries are occasions to reflect on the past, evaluate it critically and learn from it; rejoice in the present, and most important, plan for the future. If we neglect these aspects, then anniversaries become short-lived, self-glorifying, psychologically deceiving comforts—things that we need the least, especially at this moment in our history.

So, what are we celebrating today?

First, we look upon our church not as a separate entity on its own, but as a part of an institution that is seventeen hundred years old. Very few institutions in the world’s history can claim this reality. By celebrating the anniversary of St. Illuminator’s Cathedral of New York, we are celebrating seventeen centuries of ARMENIAN CHURCH existence.

Our church is part of the Golden Age of Armenian culture, when St. Mesrob, supported by Catholicos St. Sahag and supported by the wise King Vramshabouh, invented the Armenian alphabet, which became the means by which poets, writers and troubadours expressed the innermost feelings of our people and created an aesthetically enduring literature. At the hundred and tenth anniversary of our church, we are also celebrating sixteen centuries of ARMENIAN LITERATURE.

“Since its consecration . . . the Mother Church . . . has become a home-away-from home to thousands of its own sons and daughters, who have sought sanctuary on these shores . . . Like offering the Body of Christ during the Badarak, the church offered HOPE— and this is what we are celebrating.”

— Dr. Herand Markarian

Our church is part of the accomplishments of history’s greats: Movses Khorenatsi, Puzant, Ghazar Parbetsi, Yeghishe, Tovma Ardsrooni, the respected church scholars, who recorded and saved the precious fragments of our history that otherwise would have been lost. The hundred and tenth anniversary of our church is a celebration of ARMENIAN SCHOLARSHIP.

Our church is part of the traditions that have reached us through-out centuries from both the Christian and Pagan era. Vartavar, Diarruntarach, khoong, Madagh, all these have their roots in the thousands of years of our history. Our Christian forefathers had the wisdom to adopt these rituals and interpret them anew. So, through the hundred and tenth anniversary of our church, we are celebrating ARMENIAN TRADITIONS.

Since its consecration in New York, the Mother Church has become a home-away-from home to thousands of its own sons and daughters, who have sought sanctuary on these shores. It became a refuge for the homeless, a beacon to the estranged, and a place to start a new life for the immigrants. Like offering the Body of Christ during the Badarak, the church offered HOPE—and this is what we are celebrating.

Dr. Herand Markarian with Raffi Sevadjian and members of the Kousan Choir at Town Hall, circa 1964.

The community leaders, before even acquiring a building for church services, felt the importance of educating the newly born generation in their mother tongue and history. A picture taken in 1909 attests to the fact of an established Armenian School, the pivot of our existence. On December 29, 1912, the minutes of the Board of Directors clearly states the concerns of the church leaders: “Realizing that, because of the non-existence of an Armenian school the Armenian children are deprived of Armenian education, the Board decided to open a mid-week Armenian school from 3 to 5 pm and rent the space at 138 East 27th Street for that purpose. The task was assigned to Rev. Matteos Manigian and Mr. Karekin Aleon and Mr. Bedros Kaprielian with the stipulation to accomplish the task without delay and open the school as soon as possible.” It is that SPIRIT OF PROTECTING THE ARMENIAN LANGUAGE that we are celebrating.

And there are the unique traditions. Can you imagine a church service without khoong (incense)?

I remember my first year in this country. Being far away from an Armenian church, I went to a non-Armenian church for the Feast of Epiphany, our Soorp Dznoont. I went in, said my Hayr Mer, listened to the well-educated clergy’s karoz and went home. For the first time in my life it struck me how much I missed the Armenian sharagans, the hymns, our immaculate Krapar and . . . the khoong. That day I went home without inhaling the aroma of the khoong. The khoong’s aroma takes you from the church pews to the altar and to the Supreme. This is what we are celebrating- the CLOSENESS TO GOD THROUGH THE CHURCH.

Dr. Herand Markarian, right, with Rev. Fr. Mesrob Lakissian, Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, then-foreign minister of the Republic of Armenia, H. E. Archbishop Anoushavan, and Robert Avetisyan, then-representative of the Republic of Artaskh in the United States, in 2017.

The majority of Armenians may not know much about the church doctrines. But that really does not matter, for the Armenians look upon the church as a NATIONAL INSTITUTION, where EVERY ARMENIAN BELONGS. It is that tie that we are celebrating.

Are we celebrating the establishment and preservation of the church building? Yes, we are! And let no one underestimate the labor of love, the sincere efforts of the generations of members of the executive bodies who preserved and took care of the church building, making it a respected place for worship. Yes, we are celebrating the DEVOTION of all those individuals. God bless their souls.

Over the hundred and ten years, as many as twenty-five clergy-men, devotees of the Apostolic Church of Armenia, served St. Illuminator’s Cathedral.

Almost all of the clergy served the church for at least a couple of years.

Two clergymen stand out for the longevity of their service, namely Der Moushegh Der Kaloustian and Der Mesrob Lakissian.

Der Moushegh, a beloved figure of the Eastern Prelacy, served as pastor of St. Illuminator’s Cathedral for 28 years until his retirement in 1998, after which he continued to serve the Eastern Prelacy conducting outreach. Previously, Der Moushegh had served as pastor of St. Hagop Armenian Church in Racine, Wisconsin, and Holy Trinity Armenian Church in Worcester, Massachusetts. He began his service to the Prelacy in 1959.

The responsibility and the task was passed to a young energetic deacon, Krikor Lakissian, who was ordained as priest at the hand of H. E Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan in 2005 and was given the clerical name Mesrob.

Rev. Mesrob Lakissian, a graduate of the Zarehian Seminary, had served at the Prelacy from the age of 35 and had all the potentials to lead the prestigious historic St. Illuminator’s Cathedral.

For the last twenty years, Rev. Lakissian’s accomplishments are innumerable: Starting with a major project of renovating the Cathedral, to community activities in related educational and social domains, establishing Sunday religion school, guiding the ladies’ and men’s clubs, hosting and encouraging the community organizations: The ARF, the ARS, Hamazkayin, keeping ties with the Mother Church, inviting clergy from other denominations, welcoming students from California and New Jersey schools. Participating in all of the community’s activities, creating cordial ties with the Etchmiadsin churches, helping create funds for the needy in Armenia, Lebanon and Syria, hosting local artists, encouraging displays and art exhibits from Artsakh . . . in other words, St. Illuminator’s Cathedral, under Rev. Mesrob Lakissian’s leadership, became a hub, a real home for the propagation of the Armenian spirit.

It is the TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ORDINATION OF REV. MESROB LAKISSIAN that we are celebrating today.

Armed with Christian cardinal virtues of faith, hope, love, prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude, Rev. Mesrob Lakissian has a bright future to conquer current and future difficulties that surround the church.

I am sure there are more tasks ahead.

These anniversaries coincide with the 110th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, which leads us to think seriously and plan our future in a pan-Armenian realm, in a global manner to strengthen our church by having plans to connect with the Fatherland, Armenia.

At the core of our future is the propagation of the Armenian Spirit, especially in the youth.

The Church and we the parishioners together, are given that responsibility and the task to play our part in the preservation of ARMENIAN IDENTITY.

It is time to organize excursions for our youth to connect to the Fatherland, Armenia, where they can relate their history to the ancestral land, see the Mother Church of Etchmiadsin, the historical sites of Sardarabad, the Genocide Memorial, the tomb of St. Mesrob Mashdots and most importantly, the struggling people.

I believe the connectedness to the Fatherland will give the youth immeasurable stamina and commitment to propagate and celebrate future milestones of anniversaries.

I am sure, under his guidance, mentorship and commitment to Christian values, Rev. Mesrob Lakissian, will definitely accomplish this task, for he is a model of Jesus’ statement (quoted in John 10:11) “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” «Հովիւ քաջ, զանցն իւր դնէ ի վերայ ոչխարաց իւրոյ»։

God bless and prosper St. Illuminator’s Cathedral and grant Der Mesrob Lakissian the stamina to take the Cathedral to new milestones.

It is my commitment to this BELIEF that I am celebrating today.