On the front page of the August 31,2002 issue of the Armenian
 Reporter International, there was a two-paragraph article,
 "Etchmiadzin Cilicia Opening Dialogue."   To tell the truth,
 when I read the heading, I felt guardedly elated, but when I
 read the article itself, my immediate thought was, I should
 have known better.   There was absolutely no substance to the
 article.  Fact is, if one wanted to evaluate it for its
 informative qualities, it could have been described
 as ‘weasel-wording’.

Today, our divided religiously one, administratively divided
 North American Armenian Apostolic communities are looking 
for real honest-to-goodness Christian leadership from our sky
 pilots.  We look to them for direction and for updating.
  Today, our Armenian Apostolic faith is out of step with 
both time and logic.   But instead of being informed of
 corrective measures, we see a simple quote from Catholicos
 Karekin II telling the writers who were present, "Thank God,
 now we can say that we have done a lot of work through dialogue
 to smooth away some disagreements that were between us." 
 What disagreements?  Was it over territory or was it over
 church reform?  Our people would like to know.

As things stand today, there are two things we can be sure
 of without dialogue.  The disagreements which Catholicos
 Karekin II could be referring to could not be over religion
 since both have already agreed (publicly at least) that we
 Apostolic Armenians are religiously one.  And secondly, 
it couldn’t be over reuniting administratively because they
 both feel that by saying we are religiously one, they have 
absolved themselves of all responsibility regarding real church
 unity.

The only other quote in this article regarding the mysterious 
dialogue that went on between our two-dialogue seeking pontiffs
 was a partial quote from Catholicos Karekin II regarding
 specific issues, when he said " . . . but life shows that
 they are surmountable."  What’s surmountable?  We would all
 like to know because if there are serious issues and if a
\ little bit of simple dialogue can make them surmountable, 
then why in God’s name haven’t they dialogued the total
 reunification of our Armenian Apostolic Churches and 
communities here in North America?

At this juncture, I am certain that there are some among
 us who feel that as common followers of the faith (and
 trust being a part of that faith), that we have no need
 of being made privy to the dialogue that goes on between
two of our highest ranking religious leaders.  Though 
having such faith is commendable, I would suggest that 
the time has come to refer to the first four chapters
 of the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). 
  In those four chapters, every last detail (including
 dialogue) of our Lord’s ministry, from birth to
crucifixion, is revealed.  And after reviewing it, 
let us ask ourselves, Is the mysterious dialogue that
 went on between our two highest mortal ministers of
 faith more sacred or more secretive than what which
 was revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures?  And after 
that, realizing that these Scriptures are the very 
foundation that all Christian faiths are founded on, 
including our own, let us ask ourselves, Since our 
Lord’s ministry and purpose was revealed for all of
 the world to see, why isn’t  Catholicos Karekin II
 and Catholicos Aram I’s revealed to us?  Are they 
of higher rank and purpose than our Lord, Jesus Christ?

Joseph Vosbikian