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  • Church holds initial service

    Press-Enterprise , CA
    May 3 2004


    Church holds initial service

    RELIGION: A newly formed Inland parish of the Armenian Apostolic faith
    meets for the first time.

    By SHARYN OBSATZ / The Press-Enterprise

    Tina Baker said she felt at home Sunday as the blue-caped priest
    chanted prayers in Armenian.

    "I didn't really understand anything he was saying, but I really
    enjoyed it," said Baker, 35, the granddaughter of an Armenian
    immigrant.

    The Riverside mother brought her own daughters to the afternoon
    service, the first monthly Badarak organized by the recently formed
    Riverside parish of the Armenian Apostolic Church. She said she was
    only 8 or 9 the last time she attended an Armenian service.

    The service lasted two hours, filled with reverent Armenian hymns sung
    in minor key by a Palm Desert area choir. Participants stood nearly the
    entire time.

    "That was like a thousand hours," Baker's daughter Stephanie, 6, said
    afterward.

    The Divine Liturgy service has changed little in the 1,700 years since
    Armenia became the first country to officially embrace Christianity in
    301 A.D., according to participants and their priest, the Rev. Stepanos
    Dingilian.

    Priests endeavor to ensure that the ceremony is the same for Armenians
    scattered around the globe, Dingilian said. The Armenian Apostolic
    Church is part of the Eastern Orthodox tradition.

    Armenians endured deadly attacks by the Greeks, Romans, Persians and
    Turks. After decades under Soviet control, Armenia declared its
    independence in 1991.

    Inland Armenians said Sunday's service symbolized survival. Riverside
    and San Bernardino counties are home to about 4,150 people of Armenian
    ancestry, according to the 2000 census.

    More than 80 people attended Sunday's service, and organizers hope to
    start recruiting others for the next monthly service in June, said
    Norma Cosby, president of the Inland Empire Armenian Club.

    "The Armenians are quite scattered" throughout the area, and some have
    married non-Armenians so they can no longer be identified by
    traditional Armenian last names that end in "ian," said Cosby, 67, of
    San Bernardino.

    The service, held at All Saints Episcopal Church in Riverside, was
    followed by a meal of sandwiches, deviled eggs, stuffed grape leaves,
    pitas, goat cheese and baklava.

    Armenian dance instructor Pearlene Varjabedian of Corona coached her
    4-year-old daughter, Lara, in a recitation of the poem, "I am Armenian,
    Saint Vartan's Grandchild." The crowd clapped.

    Parents' goal is to preserve the faith and culture, Varjabedian said.

    "It's planting the seed," she said.
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