www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News Byzantine Drama at the Armenian Church in Burma

hello everyone!

there's a bit of drama going on in the Armenian church of Rangoon/Yangon in Burma/Myanmar, and i suppose if i don't post about it, most here might not get to know about it.

at the end of August, the BBC ran a story about the last Armenians of Burma and the parish in Rangoon. see how many red flags you can spot when you read the article:

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28867884

i heard some bizarre things from some of the Armenians who were in Singapore for the Patriarch's visit on 28th Sept, but i'll leave that for later.

after that article, i was curious about what the 'priest' looked like, and then this article was brought to my attention, and you can see what the fellow looks like. res ipsa loquitur!

http://www.irrawaddy.org/feature/burmas-last-armenians-eagerly-await-visit-supreme-patriarch.html

an article on the preservation status:

http://www.irrawaddy.org/burma/supr...nian-church-granted-heritage-status.html

then came this one from the BBC:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-29505568

and a blogpost from a friend of mine telling the back story:

http://www.chasingchinthes.com/one-quarter-armenian-one-hundred-per-cent-feisty/

such drama!

Edward,

What a curious situation!

Do keep us updated if you see any updates on this.

Thanks!

Messdiener

Dear Edward,

As I understand it, there are also Assyrian Christians in the region.

A curious situation indeed! It reminds one of the situation that occurred in Korea before the first Catholic missionaries arrived there.

A group of Koreans travelled to China 200 years ago and studied Mateo Ricci's documents about Catholicism. They fell in love with it all and established a "Korean Catholic" church replete with bishops, priests, deacons - none of which were, of course, ordained. When the missionaries visited Korea and saw this community, they wondered who got there ahead of them! So they kept everything in place while simply consecrating bishops and ordaining priests.

(The Armenians in Jerusalem honour a tree to which they believe Christ was tied during His arrest. They make prayer beads from the nuts that are produced by that tree . . .).

May the 1.5 million Armenian Martyr-Saints, to be glorified next year, intercede for this fledgling parish!

Alex

Dear brother Alex,

The was a good comparison, and BEFORE I read the last two linked articles, my first impression was "they can just ordain this man who has served the parish so well."

Now, I hope that man gets out of there.

Btw, here in the Philippines, Koreans are known for having a cultural peculiarity - they intentionally travel to other countries, take the best of what they can get, and transplant it in their home soil. I hope the word "peculiarity" is not taken in a negative sense by anyone. I just think it is a very unique cultural perspective, and I, for one, respect it.

Blessings

Dear Brother Marduk,

Ah, so it's in their culture! I respect it too and wish them well!

Yes, that "priest" seems to have deceived people on purpose. The Anglicans and the Armenians (and other Oriental Orthodox) have gotten on famously, mainly because the Anglican missionaries didn't seem to want to destroy the local OO Church and sent the children of OO parents to their own parishes.

Henry Martyn, an Anglican translator, worked with the Armenians who, upon his death, buried him in the vestments of one of their bishops. Assyrians also attended his funeral and he is now in the Anglican calendar of saints and commemorations.

There is a Coptic Orthodox priest here in Toronto who received a rood screen from a group of Anglican nuns free of charge who only asked him to remember their order in prayer - the screen is in the Coptic museum that fr. Markos Markos had established (the Copts are building a colossal Church here not too far from where I used to live - God bless them!).

A shame that the Anglicans couldn't have kept him away from the Armenians or else didn't unmask him sooner.

Alex

Except in India, where they tried to destroy (well, more like usurp) the Church and created the Marthoma sect.

Dear Michael Thoma,

Good point sir!

To paraphrase Pope St Gregory I - "Not Angels, but Anglicans!"

Alex

Thank you very much for posting this, Edward. A Very Happy American Thanksgiving!