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More than 80 percent of Armenians are members of the Armenian Apostolic Church, which traces its history to the year 301. Armenia was an important power in its own right in ancient times, but for most of its modern history it has been under foreign control. Since its establishment, the church has played a significant role in the identity of the Armenian people.

Catholicos Karekin described to ENI how church life had been "minimized" under Soviet rule, when a "materialism-oriented lifestyle became dominant."

"Today our great challenge is to bring the church back to the very center of the nation's life, where it belongs."

Much was being done, the Catholicos said, to reconstruct old churches and monasteries and also to build new ones. In his former diocese of Ararat, which includes Yerevan, nine churches were being constructed and there were plans for a further five.

"However, the physical presence of the church is not enough," said Karekin II, adding that only by establishing a "thriving community life"—religious education, charitable and social activities—would the church be able "to make our Christian preaching and witness more relevant, and satisfy the spiritual hunger and thirst the Armenian people have today."

The church was already giving help to orphans, and a grant of between US$3,000 and $5,000 to families who wanted to start small businesses.

But Catholicos Karekin said social programs had to be expanded. He cited the example of three church-run soup kitchens in Yerevan which were now feeding 600 people a day, but which would soon be expanded to feed 2,000 a day.

"What is most important for us now is the Christian education of the people," he added. "For that, we need to prepare teachers, we need to prepare clergy, organize community life."

Armenia's law on religion was amended in 1997 to curb the spread of non-traditional faiths and sects, and was criticized by some minority churches and human rights advocates. The law was in part a reaction to the aftermath of an earthquake which killed 25,000 people in December 1988. This prompted many religious groups to come to Armenia, bringing humanitarian assistance, but many of them also began missionary work here. The new arrivals included evangelical Christians, as well as Jehovah's Witnesses and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

According to Keston News Service, some Jehovah's Witnesses, whose community has not been officially approved by the Armenian authorities, have been imprisoned for their "illegal" activities.

However, Karekin said that the law was "inadequate" and contained many loopholes "from which many sects are benefiting and are engaging in proselytizing."

"The Armenian Church puts forward [makes it a priority] to protect its children from the attacks of sects and aggressive intentions in religious life," Catholicos Karekin told ENI. But he stressed that: "One cannot achieve this goal simply with bans."

The Catholicos recognized that, like national churches in other countries, the Armenian Church also needed to undertake missionary work among its own baptized members, only a small fraction of whom regularly practiced their faith.

"The church has to conduct its own mission and evangelization to teach the faith to its members," Catholicos Karekin said. "The church must be built in the souls of her people. Only in this way can we protect our church and the unity of our people."

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December (Web-only) 1999, Vol. 43