By the Christian calendar, we are now in the second year of the second millennium.  This 
means that we are now two-thousand-and-two years away from that fateful year when the 
Jews got their Roman oppressors to nail Jesus Christ to a wooden cross which, in turn, 
gave birth to our Christian faith.


As Armenians, we were the first to accept Christianity as our State religion seventeen- 
hundred-and-one years ago, in 301 A.D., making us the first Christian nation in biblical 
history.


On December 24, 1933, (Christmas Eve day), a little more than sixty-nine years ago, we 
disgraced ourselves by assassinating Archbishop Levon Tourian, an Armenian cleric, at 
the foot of the altar of the Holy Cross Armenian Church on West 187th Street, New York.  
And similar to how the crucifixion of Christ brought about a split between believers and 
nonbelievers, twenty centuries ago, this modern-day assault on a Christian cleric also 
brought about a split.  But unlike the split from twenty centuries ago, this wasn’t between 
those who believed in Christ and those who didn’t.  This split was caused by two of our 
most prominent and also most short-sighted political factions of the day.  Incidentally, 
this split was so powerful that even brothers, sisters, and families stopped interrelating for 
many years thereafter.


Today, in the year of our Lord, two-thousand-and-two, we find ourselves with two 
religious Sees competitively dispensing the same Apostolic faith.  And even though the 
rest of our Armenian world remains religiously subservient under the governance of one 
See or the other, here in North America we find both of our divided Armenian Apostolic 
Churches existing apart by a dividing fence at worst, or by neighborhoods, towns, and 
cities at best.


How can this be possible?  If you were to ask our separated sky pilots, Why?   They 
would surely absolve themselves of all blame by saying that they are only ministering to 
the will of the people -- that when and if the people decide to unite our Armenian Church, 
they will serve with the same passion with which they are serving today which isn’t 
saying much.  This, no doubt, seems to be readily accepted by those who still attend 
church services.  But if one were to look at it more realistically, I’m sure one would find 
some who don’t want to rock the boat, some who want to maintain their social status, and 
those who feel that they are a part of the flock which our Lord referred to in His teachings 
and which our clerics misinterpret by unabashedly using the flock principle while plying 
their trade.  Considering all of this, I’m sure that we all realize that religion is not the 
reason why we find our Armenian Church in such an unholy state.  I further believe that 
many of our clerics who posture themselves as disciples of God are, in truth, more 
concerned about their lifestyles than they are about the Christian faith they’re 
representing.  This may be the reason why we find our Armenian Apostolic faith in such a 
sorry state.  And if such is the case, then all of the new churches and cathedrals we build 
will not engender the love and respect we should have for one another.


And if the probability of what I’m stating is true, and the probability of it being so is 
strong, then how are those fellows preaching faith from our divided Christian Apostolic 
altars going to teach us how to get to Heaven if they don’t have much of a chance of 
getting there themselves.


As Shakespeare so aptly put it, " . . .  The world is the stage and we are the players."


Joseph Vosbikian