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.
