I would like to commend Nahabed Melkonian for his ‘no holds barred’ commentary, 
“Celebration on the Ruins of Unity,” which appeared in the March 2, 2002 issue of TAR 
Int’l.  Though it leaves the reader wondering about the religious sincerity and devotion of 
Cilicia’s Catholicos Aram I, it also reflects how much pain it must have caused Mr. 
Melkonian to publicly express his overall disillusion.

Though I totally agree with his assessment of Cilicia’s Pontiff, I would also add that if we 
were to look at the disunity of our Armenian Apostolic churches and communities in 
North America more objectively, we would find termites throughout our entire Armenian 
Apostolic Tree of Faith.  This being the case, I would also like to invite both Etchmiadzin 
and Cilician Sees,  North America’s Diocese and Prelacy anti-unity churchgoers and 
clerics on both sides, along with all those who initially created and who are still feeding 
the fires of disunity in North America, to join in Melkonian’s “Celebration on the Ruins 
of Unity.”  And in this regard, I believe that what Mr. Melkonian quoted from Apostle St. 
James epistle, applies to all of us: “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, 
deceiving ourselves.”


And herein lies the rub.  Even though Catholicos Aram I misuses his religious authority 
in a nonreligious and deceptive manner, he is not totally to blame.  Nor are the deceptive 
anti-unity clerics on the Etchmiadzin side totally at fault.  In reality, the fault lies with all 
of us who blindly support and place our trust and souls into the hands of the soothsayers.  
And since they enjoy such an overwhelming number of ‘housebroken’ lambs, when the 
anti-unity clerics are asked why the disunity of our churches and communities in North 
America continues, they absolve themselves by saying, “We are only following the will 
of our people.”


When our Coalition for Church Unity was active years ago, we were able to bring the 
people from our divided congregations closer together but we were unable to bring about 
total unity.  About the closest we came was an admission from both sides of our 
Apostolic religious hierarchies that “We are religiously One and only administratively 
divided.”  And I believe that on more than one occasion, I’ve called this ‘weasel 
wording’.  And today, though it may have subdued some of our primal instincts toward 
bringing our religious circus under one tent, we are now seeing how deviously they 
interpret the words “religiously one” and “administratively divided.”   Accordingly they 
wish to divide the Armenian churches in North America even further.  It leaves me to 
wonder: What happened to the “religiously one” part of it?


Today, instead of building more Armenian schools along with cultural and community 
centers; instead of having more Armenian retirement facilities in our respective areas; 
instead of needed counseling groups for our youth, our aged, and our troubled families; 
instead of offering scholarships to our worthy youth or financial assistance to those who 
must have it to get higher learning, etc., etc., we continue building divided churches while 
automatically reinforcing the continuation of divided communities.


And by now, I’m certain that many of us will be asking, Where’s God in all this?  My 
only answer to that is, God helps those who help themselves.


Joseph Vosbikian