Церковь Сурб Вардан (Детройт, США)

Шаблон:Churcht St. Vartan's Armenian Catholic Church (Detroit) Армянская Католическая Церковь св. Вартана (Детройт) Saint Vartan’s Armenian Catholic Parish Detroit, Michigan -founded in 1948-

Historical Summary by Vartabed Antoine Saroyan

 St. Vartan’s Armenian Catholic Parish of Greater Detroit was instituted in 1948 by His Eminency Cardinal Krikor-Bedros XV Agaganian, Catholicos-Patriarch of the House of Cilicia for Armenian Catholics, upon the invitation of His Eminency Edward Cardinal Mooney, Archbishop of Detroit.  A native Armenian Catholic Priest and a survivor of the Armenian Genocide 1915, Msgr. Joseph Kalajian, 1907-1999, a talented musician, composer and author, came to the United States from Beirut (Lebanon) n May, 1946, to minister [to] the Armenian catholic faithful as assistant Pastor to Msgr. Stephan Stephanian at St. Mark’s Armenian Catholic Parish, in Philadelphia.  In December 1947, he was directed to come to Detroit to become the first pastor and the founder of the new Parish in 1948.
 The first Parish building was established at 371 West Grand Boulevard, Detroit.  Msgr. Kalajian conducted services Sundays and Holidays at Holy Redeemer Roman Catholic Church until 1958 when through the generosity and munificence of the Archdiocese of Detroit and the support of the few Armenian Catholic families at the time, St. Vartan’s Armenian Catholic Church became a reality.
 Located at 5841 Greenfield Rd., Detroit, Michigan, 48228, St. Vartan’s Armenian Catholic Church is till the center of a vibrant Armenian Catholic Community.  Since his arrival in February 1998, Reverend Father Antoine Saroyan assumed the role of Pastor and successor of the late Msgr. Joseph Kalajian who served the Armenian Catholic Parish of Greater Detroit for more than 50 years.
 St. Vartan’s Armenian Catholic Parish, named for the Armenian patron Saint Vartan Mamigonian, an Armenian General and Martyr who led his countrymen against the Persians in defense of Christianity and Armenian identity in 450 A.D., resides on a small plot of land on Greenfield Road in Detroit just in from of a branch of Wayne County Community College.
 The 35x56 foot $40,000 (in 1958) structure, designed by architect Joseph Cyr of Dearborn, set deep in its 125x840 -foot lot includes the rectory and a small hall.  The building  is constructed of steel and tan brick with a nine-foot aluminum cupola and a cross pointing skyward.  The wall are plain without the usual symbols of religious ritual, except for statuary set against wood panels flanking the altar and two paintings by the Roman artist Barberiss.  One, an original, portrays St. Vartan, in whose honor the Parish was named.  the second portrays St. Gregory the Illuminator, founder of the Armenian Church.
 St. Vartan’s Armenian Catholic Parish is an Eastern Rite Armenian Catholic Church.  Its predominant characteristics are its Armenian National Identity and its ecclesiastical-religious Catholic Tradition.  St. Vartan’s Armenian Catholic Parish is of Eastern Rite because in the celebration of its liturgy and in the administration of the Sacraments it follows the genuine Armenian Tradition and the genuine Armenian Rite, one of the various Rites of worship in the countries of the Middle East.  Classical and modern Western Armenian are the official liturgical languages.  It is Armenian because of the reality and identity of its origin as an integral part of the Armenian Nation.  Finally, it is Catholic because in Faith it is in union with the Universal Catholic Church of Rome in the continuity of the tradition of the first centuries.
 Initially, due to the absence of an Armenian Catholic Hierarchy in the U.S.A., the new established St. Vartan’s Armenian Catholic Parish was placed under the protection and auspices of the Archdiocese of Detroit.  During long decades, four prominent Cardinal-Archbishops took care of St. Vartan’s Parish.

His Eminence Edward Cardinal Mooney (08/03/1937 - 10/25/1958), His Eminence John Cardinal Dearden (01/29/1959 - 07/15/1980), His Eminence Edmund Cardinal Szoka (05/17/1981 - 01/15/1990), and His Eminence Adam Cardinal Maida (06/12/1990 - .)

They provided all sorts of human, ecclesiastical and religious support and comfort to help Msgr. Kalajian fulfilling his pastoral activity.

 Years later, based on the growth of the Armenian Catholic Communities in the U.S.A., the National Conference of Armenian Catholic Bishops (The Synod) with the approbation of the Holy Father, John Paul II, created in 1981 the “Apostolic Exarchate for Armenian Catholics in the U.S.A. and Canada” with the site in New York.
 Since that very date, the Armenian Catholic Communities in the U.S.A. and Canada received their ordinary Exarch representing the Armenian Catholic Hierarchy.
 The first Exarch-Bishop to lead the Exarchate was His Excellency the late Bishop Nerses Setian (1981-1995.)  In 1995, His Excellency the late Bishop Hovhannes Terzakian (1995-2000) assumed the duties of the Exarchate.  On November 30, 2000, His Holiness Pope John Paul II appointed His Excellency Bishop Manuel Batakian as the new Exarch for Armenian Catholics in the U.S.A. and Canada.
 After the establishment of the Apostolic Exarchate for Armenian Catholics in the U.S.A. and Canada, the Armenian Catholic Patriarchate assumed the entire responsibility of the Armenian Catholic Parishes in U.S.A. and Canada.  Nevertheless, the Archdiocese of Detroit continues to support St. Vartan’s Armenian Catholic Parish into a better future.
 The members of St. Vartan’s Armenian Catholic Parish are Armenian-American citizens by birth or by naturalization.  The first Armenian immigrants from the Near East to settle in Greater Detroit came at the turn of the 19th century.
 For the most part, their reasons for coming were economic.  They came to work in the mills and factories of the New World.
 A second wave of Armenian immigrants came to the United States to escape the oppression, the tyranny and the first Genocide of the 20th century perpetrated by the Turkish Ottoman Empire and its Sultans against the Armenian nation between 1898 and 1915-1923.  More than 1.5 Million Armenians were massacred for their Christian Faith and Armenian identity.
 Finally, additional Armenians in Detroit came to this country to escape the political instabilities in the countries of the Middle East, such as Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and the Soviet Union.  Without doubt, it was natural for them to worship in the Rite and according to the tradition of their ancestors.  Fro this purpose they formed Parishes and erected Churches.
 During the year 2001, St. Vartan’s Armenian Catholic Parish along with the Armenian nation all around the world celebrated and commemorated the remarkable event of A.D. 301, when “Tiridates,” the king of Armenia, became the first ruler to adopt Christianity as a state religion, opening for the Armenian nation the immense horizon of religious, human, social, individual, national and cultural new perspectives and values.
 The moving agent of this great event was St. Gregory the Illuminator who is considered as the founder of the ecclesiastical Armenian Hierarchy and the first Catholicos of the Armenian Church.
 St. Gregory was consecrated bishop by the Metropolitan Leontius in Caesaria of Cappadoccia.  Through the sanctity of his life, his zeal, and his miracles, he converted the king “Tiridates” and all the members of the royal family, and baptized them.
 Consequently, Christianity was proclaimed and accepted as the religion of the Armenian Empire in 301 A.D., well before Emperor Constantine’s declaration of acceptance in 314 A.D.
 In this way, Armenia and the Armenian Nation are very proud to be the first nation to accept to the Christian Faith as the state religion.
 Since that very date, the weapons of the Christian faith and Armenian identity, culture and heritage, which have been lived, asserted and affirmed by Armenians wherever they settled, determined Armenian history.
 The bond between Christian faith and Armenian identity has developed an overwhelming force, which has resisted to all kind of trials and tribulations experienced by the Armenian nation and the Armenian Church throughout the centuries.
 Having all this in his mind and heart and perceiving it as an objective realization of all the afore mentioned values, the founder of St. Vartan’s Armenian Catholic Parish, Msgr. Joseph Kalajian, decided to grant to the new established Parish the name of St. Vartan, a unique symbol in the Armenian History representing the ideal objective of the past and the future of the Armenian Destiny,

“Vaasen Groneets yev Hayrenyats” (For the Religion and the Homeland.)

 Under the guidance and leadership of His Beatitude Nerses-Bedros XIX, Catholicos-Patriarch of the House of Cilicia for Armenian Catholics, St. Vartan’s Armenian Catholic Parish, established in Greater Detroit in 1948, is a part of the Armenian Catholic Church worldwide which “is the heir of the fullness of the faith and the Catholic ecclesiastical communion of the Armenian Church hierarchisized by St. Gregory the Illuminator and continued by St. Nerses, Sahak-Mesrop and their faithful successors” (Msgr. Garabed Amadouni, in “Armenian Nation,” p.63.)

Father Antione Saroyan

Pastor of St. Vartan’s Armenian Catholic Parish Detroit Michigan

St. Vartan's Armenian Catholic church, Detroit

St. Vartan, Detroit, Michigan. The pastor is the Rev. Thomas Garabedian.