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Leader Of Armenian Apostolic Christians To Speak And Receive Honorar

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  • Leader Of Armenian Apostolic Christians To Speak And Receive Honorar

    LEADER OF ARMENIAN APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANS TO SPEAK AND RECEIVE HONORARY DEGREE HERE FRIDAY

    UST Bulletin Today, MN
    http://www.pontificalvisit.org/.
    http://www.sttho mas.edu/bulletin/news/200743/Monday/Armenia10_22_0 7.cfm
    Oct 22 2007

    His Holiness Karekin II, the spiritual leader of the world's 9
    million Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Christians, will give an address
    and receive an honorary degree Friday, Oct. 26, at the University of
    St. Thomas.

    His Holiness will give the talk at 10:30 a.m. in the Schulze Grand
    Atrium of the School of Law on the university's downtown Minneapolis
    campus. The event is open to the public.

    Elected "Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of Armenia and of All
    Armenians" in 1999, His Holiness is visiting St. Thomas and the Twin
    Cities as part of a tour of more than a dozen U.S. cities in October.

    ("Catholicos," from a Greek word meaning "universal," is the highest
    ecclesiastical title in the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church.)

    Born Ktrij Nersissian in Voskehat, Armenia, in 1951, he was ordained
    a celibate priest and received his priestly name, Karekin, in 1972.

    He continued his studies in Austria, Germany and Russia, and was
    consecrated a bishop in 1983 and elevated to archbishop in 1992. He
    is the 132nd in a continuous line of Catholicoi dating back to 301
    when Armenia became the first nation to declare Christianity as its
    national religion.

    About 1,150 Minnesotans are from Armenia or of Armenian descent; most
    of them live in the Twin Cities. The state's only Armenian Apostolic
    Orthodox church, the St. Sahag Armenian Church, was established
    five years ago. It is located at 203 Howell Street N., not far from
    St. Thomas' St. Paul campus.

    His Holiness will participate in a service at the church at 7
    p.m. Thursday, Oct. 25. The service will be followed by a public
    reception at 8 p.m. All are welcome; for more information call (651)
    603-1940.

    Armenia is a landlocked former Soviet republic about the size of
    the state of Maryland. It borders Turkey on the west, Azerbaijan on
    the east, Iran on the south and Georgia on the north. After gaining
    independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Armenians dealt with the
    results of a catastrophic earthquake, a two-year power outage and a
    collapse of their infrastructure.

    His Holiness has been active in helping his country rebuild after the
    earthquake struck Armenia in 1988. Since his election as Catholicos,
    he has been reorganizing the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church:
    building and restoring its churches, monasteries and seminaries;
    visiting church and government leaders throughout the word; and
    strengthening ecumenical ties.

    St. Thomas has a growing number of ties with Armenia, in part because
    of a friendship between the Rev. Dennis Dease, St. Thomas' president,
    and Gerard Cafesjian, a retired West Publishing executive who is
    president of the Minneapolis-based Cafesjian Family Foundation.

    Cafesjian, who is of Armenian descent, and the Cafesjian Family
    Foundation, which is dedicated to supporting Armenian-oriented
    philanthropy, are collaborating with St. Thomas on several fronts.

    Dr. Thomas Rochon, executive vice president and chief academic officer
    at St. Thomas, traveled to Armenia last April to explore partnerships
    in the fields of business, law and journalism.

    St. Thomas student Anne Marie Iddins, center, works with Vincent Lima,
    editor of the Armenian Reporter, and intern Elyssa Karanian at the
    newspaper's office on Aug. 22 in Yerevan, Armenia.

    In August three St. Thomas journalism professors visited Armenia to
    work on media-literacy, Web-training and public relations projects in
    the fledgling democracy. The faculty members were Dr. Wendy Wyatt,
    Dr. Mark Neuzil and Mike O'Donnell. A senior, Annemarie Iddins,
    joined them on the trip.

    Their visit included time at the English-language Armenian Reporter,
    a New Jersey-based weekly newspaper that is edited in Armenia but
    printed and distributed in the United States and Canada. They worked
    with the newspaper staff on design, style, writing and editing,
    Web sites and software.

    Several St. Thomas journalism students have become involved with the
    Armenian Reporter. Iddins, Pam Hendrickson, Jeff Day, Stephanie Edquist
    and Jennie Betchwars have been writing stories for the newspaper.

    Public relations students Brandon Fredrickson and Bridget Jewell were
    also involved in a research project for the paper.

    In another initiative supported by the Cafesjian Family Foundation,
    a deacon and a priest from Armenia are in residence this year at the
    St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity of the University of St. Thomas.

    The Very Rev. Father Zaven Yazichyan is pursuing a master's in
    counseling psychology at the university and Deacon Manuk Malkhasyan
    is studying for a master's in theology at the School of Divinity.

    More Armenians are expected to study at the seminary in coming years.

    St. Thomas in recent years has hosted talks and symposiums on
    Armenia. National and international scholars participated in a "Tribute
    to Armenia" program in 2001 and a "Windows on the Armenian Genocide"
    symposium in 2003.
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