Dear Friends,

Today is known as Middle Sunday, for it falls in between the Sunday of the Catechumens and Poon Paregentan, the beginning of the solemn period of Great Lent. During this upcoming week we celebrate the feast of the Holy Ghevontyank Priests and the 1036 Heroes of Vartanank, all who were martyred for their Christian faith during the 5th century conflict with the Persians.

The following article from “Hayrenik” caught my attention as it highlights the deep faith and God-given courage of one of our present day church leaders. I have translated it for the spiritual edification of our faithful.

With prayers,
Hayr Simeon

Bomb Scare at St. John the Baptist Cathedral

On Sunday, January 6, 2008, the Feast of Christmas, at the precise moment when the Holy Badarak was commencing at Paris’ St. John the Baptist Armenian Cathedral, an unidentified cell phone caller from the area of the Champs Elysee, stated that a bomb had been placed in the church. The police arrived and evacuated all the faithful from the church.

With the help of police dogs they began the search and concluded that it was a false alarm. The faithful returned for the final parts of the liturgy.

Of interest is the fact that Bishop Norvan (Primate of France), despite the insistence of the police, refused to leave the church and continued the celebration of the holy Badarak at the altar, without being disturbed by the police dog search.

He believed that even if the threat was serious and there had been a life-threatening bomb, he was prepared to become a martyr to the evil intention, by continuing his incense-filled offering of the sacred liturgy.

That day French Armenians were deprived of the liturgy of the Holy Nativity, however, they learned an important lesson that 100 years after the death of the great Catholicos Khrimian Hayrig, they witnessed the courageous stand of this Primate with an “iron heart – yergatya sird.”

It is certain that the hero and central figure of the day – January 6, 2008 - was the courageous Primate of the Armenians, who with his “moral bomb” and fearless stance, was able to transform those dark and threatening hands.

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With prayers.
Hayr Simeon
January 27, 2008