The sixty-four-year division between our Armenian Apostolic churches in North America 
goes against all of the basic principles of Christianity, and this abomination continues 
because our majority remains passive and uninvolved.  Certainly we’ve all heard that old 
weather-beaten line about being religiously one and administratively divided.  And, no 
doubt, we have also heard it mentioned that the disunity of our churches started centuries 
ago even though such a division as ours exists nowhere else in the world.  Moreover, 
there’s also the argument that during the course of our turbulent history we have had 
more than two Catholicoses at times.


All of these premises and arguments supporting the present-day division of our Armenian 
Apostolic churches in North America may be true, except for one unholy omission: At no 
time throughout the seventeen-hundred year history of our Armenian faith have there 
been two "administratively divided" Armenian Sees competitively operating separate 
"religiously one" churches in the same jurisdiction as they are in North America.  And to 
add insult to injury, we even have a few divided churches existing side by side, as if 
existing in the same towns or cities weren’t bad enough.  Are we for real?


Catholicos Aram I of the Great House of Cilicia is coming to visit our shores during 
October and, to date, we do not know whether he intends to bring unity back into our 
churches and communities or if the primary reason for his visit is to gather harvest from 
his divided flock.  Here in Philadelphia, special banquet reservations and a personal 
visitation with His Holiness are being priced at a thousand dollars per person.


As a strong advocate for church unity, I will be watching Catholicos Aram’s October visit 
with special interest.  And in this regard, I will be watching for something more tangible 
from His Holiness than meaningless words of pacification.  The time for rhetoric, no 
matter how encouraging, is over because words by themselves remain meaningless if the 
expressed desire of such words remain unfulfilled.  


Since the fall of the Iron Curtain and the resurgence of Armenia as a nation, we had 
expected great things to happen through the reunited efforts of our Holy Sees.  However, 
instead of getting strong feelings that the reunification of our churches is at hand, we have 
been getting stronger feelings of further betrayal.   Is it any wonder that many among us 
are getting turned off?  And to add to this dilemma, what is going to be the message that 
Vehapar Aram projects if after he comes and leaves, we find ourselves no closer to 
reunification than we were on that fateful day of December 24, 1983 when we became 
divided because of Archbishop Tourian’s assassination while walking in procession down 
the aisle of Holy Cross Apostolic Church in New York?


If the supreme leaders of our Armenian church cannot or do not try to bring unity back 
into our segmented lives, will going to an Armenian church be for the purpose of 
strengthening our faith and endowing our children with the quality of Armenian life we 
have been envisioning, or will we be going to an Armenian church to further empower, 
finance, and fortify the political and religious separatists who continue to set us apart?


Whatever became of that "Golden Bridge?"  


Joseph Vosbikian