St. Vartan Armenian Church of Mississauga
P.O. Box 53010, 5100 Erin Mills
Parkway, Mississauga, Ontario L5M 5A7
Very Rev. Fr. Hayrik Hovhannisyan, Pastor
Telephone (905) 549-2711
stvartan@cogeco.ca
(905) 617-7888
Fifth
Sunday of Eastertide
Appearance
of the Holy Cross
Today is the Fifth Sunday of
Eastertide. Eastertide (also known as
Quinquagesima), begins on Easter Sunday and continues until Pentecost in the
Christian liturgical calendar, spanning a total of 50 days, roughly seven
weeks. During these special days, our church remembers and honours the
Resurrection, and on the last 10 days, the Ascension of our Lord. The fiftieth day is devoted to the coming of
the Holy Spirit. This is Eastertide, a
period dedicated solely to the mystery of the encounters between the
resurrected Jesus and his apostles and followers.
Today, we also celebrate the Feast of the
Apparition of the Holy Cross (Yerevman Khatch). The Apparition of the Holy Cross occurred in 351
A.D., during the time of Patriarch Cyril of Jerusalem. On the morning of Pentecost, at 3 a.m., a massive cross appeared in the sky,
extending from the crest of Golgotha (the Aramaic name (meaning place of a skull) for the
hill on which Jesus was crucified; called Calvary in English) to the crest of the Mount of Olives.
Visible for many hours, it was witnessed by all the people of Jerusalem, who ran to the churches in contrition
and piety.
Patriarch Cyril wrote about this
apparition in a letter to the emperor in Constantinople. The story is
read in our church as a lection.
According to Cyril, the apparition of the cross was in defense of the orthodox faith against the false doctrine of
Arius, who enjoyed Emperor Constantius’
protection. Cyril strove to influence
the emperor through sweet and deferential words. We observe this feast 28 days after Easter.
The cross, this ancient instrument of
death, is a powerful religious symbol for Armenians, reminding us of the hope
and new life God offers us through the resurrection of Jesus.
You are
Dearly Loved
Today and everyday, I send you
special deliveries of My love and faithfulness. My
compassions for you never fail; they are new and waiting for you each and every
morning. Come find love and refuge in the shadow of My
wings. Feast on My abundance, and drink from My river
of delights. In Me you will discover the fountain of
life. Blessings will be yours as you spur each other on to love and good
deeds.
My priceless and unfailing love,
Your God of
Eternal Encouragement.
From Lamentation 3:22-23; Psalm 36:7-9; Hebrews 10:24
Sunday, May 6, 2007
Divine
Liturgy @ 1 p.m. with Celebrant
Very Rev. Fr. Hayrik Hovhannisyan. Sunday School @ 1:30 p.m. The children will be
learning about the Fifth Sunday of Eastertide and the Appearance of the Holy
Cross with teacher Taline Paroyan.
BBQ lunch after
Soorp Badarak today!
This is the message he has given us
to announce to you: God is light and there is no darkness in him at all. So we
are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual
darkness. We are not living in the truth. But if we are living in the light of
God’s presence, just as Christ is, then we have fellowship with each other, and
the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from every sin. 1 John 1:5-10
Welcome to St. Vartan Armenian Church
If you are a newcomer to St. Vartan, it is a pleasure to welcome you to our Soorp Badarak this afternoon. Thank you for making time in your
busy schedule to be with us. We believe that you will sense God’s Spirit among
us as we worship together today.
Requiem
services (hokehankist) can be requested for the next
church service by calling Very Rev. Fr. Hayrik Hovhannisyan. A requiem may be requested following the death
of a loved one, 40 days after their death (karasoonk),the yearly anniversary, name day, birthday or Mother’s Day.
Requiem services have been requested for today by
Mr. and Mrs. Arno and Christine Ermarkaryan and family for the loving memory of their father and grandfather Hachik Ermarkaryan (20 years). May God bless his soul.
Calling all Armenian Children to St.Vartan's 5th Annual Summer Day Camp
Spots still available for Campers ages
4+ and Counsellors ages 12+
The camp runs from
Tuesday, July 3 to Friday,
July 6
at Fogolar's Country Club
in Milton, Ont.
Cost is $135 per camper –payment can be mailed, faxed
or emailed with credit card information.
No cost for volunteer counsellors.
For more details, please contact
Christine Ermarkaryan at
(905) 825-5299
Hope you can join us for a super week of
Armenian fun!
Are You New to St. Vartan Armenian Church?
At St. Vartan, we understand how
being a newcomer can be a bit intimidating.
It is our goal to make your time with us comfortable and enjoyable. Immediately following the service today please
join us in the church hall for a BBQ lunch in support of the Diocesan
summer camp for our children and youth, Camp Ararat. We’re glad you’re here and we hope to see you
again! Our next service is at 1 p.m. on Sunday, May 20, 2007 with Celebrant Very Rev.
Fr. Hayrik Hovhannisyan.
Church
Envelopes
St. Vartan now has offering
envelopes that you can pick up in the church’s entrance foyer, by the candles. Please
help yourself. We thank God for your support and the blessing of your presence.
April 24
Memorial Lecture
Armenians
Need to Speak Out Against All Genocides
We want
others to do something about the Armenian Genocide which is nearly 100 years
old, yet we are largely indifferent to the pain of others currently experiencing
genocide, pointed out George Shirinian, executive
director of the Zoryan Institute to a mostly Armenian
audience of about 80 people last week.
The son of
orphaned refuges of the Armenian Genocide, Mr. Shirinian
was the guest speaker at St. Vartan’s Memorial
Lecture on April 24, invited to answer the question of what should be the
Armenian response today to the Armenian Genocide of 1915.
Being a Bystander is Contributing to Genocide
“We are what
scholars call ‘bystanders’,” said George.
By the very act of not choosing sides in a conflict, we are letting it
happen. “If you are just 30 years old,
you have already lived through four genocides—Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur…if we are not responsive to the
genocides of others, how can we expect others to be responsive to ours,” he
demanded.
The Zoryan Institute studies genocide in order to understand
the factors leading to this human tragedy.
If we can predict the conditions leading to genocide, it may be possible
to prevent future genocides from taking place, George said. He stressed it is not a lobby group.
Genocide Conditions Are There Again
“Our
analysis of the geo-strategic situation in the region (Caucasus) shows that
the same conditions that were present there in 1915 are present again now,” he
said. The United
States is
militarily engaged in Iraq and
conflicts are brewing between it and Iran. Turkey is
threatening to invade northern Iraq to put down
Kurdish resistance there. Russia could side
with Azerbaijan for oil.
Europeans are passing laws and officially recognizing the Armenian Genocide,
because it suits their geo-political strategy of blocking Turkey’s membership
in the European Union (EU). Turkey blames the
Armenians for their troubles with the EU—not the Europeans and not themselves.
It is maintaining an economic blockade against Armenia over the Karabagh conflict and refuses to have diplomatic relations
with Armenia—which is a
huge security threat.
Armenia Needs to
Establish Diplomatic Relations with Turkey
“For Armenia to have
political and economic security, it must have normal relations with its largest
neighbour,” says George. Armenia is very
vulnerable, surrounded by hostile countries, “…and genocide could happen to our
people again.”
Armenians Need to Speak Out
Against All Genocides
What to
do? Convert your emotional response to
the Genocide into intellectual energy—educate yourself and know our
history. Don’t be a bystander in the
face of genocide. Speak out and act
against the genocide of others. Provide
the forces for democratic change in Turkey with the
information and knowledge they need in their search for truth and freedom. “We
Armenians have a vested interest in their success,” said George. At work, school and everyday life, speak
about genocide and learn what can be done to prevent it. Support organizations that research and
analyze our history, educate Armenians and work to achieve good policies for
us.
He noted it
has been a struggle to get the Armenian genocide taught in Canadian
schools. Efforts to do so with the
Ottawa Board of Education were successfully blocked by the Turkish Embassy.
Although almost all Jewish scholars in the West support the Armenian Genocide,
about 20 years ago the Israeli government entered into a strategic alliance
with Turkey and agreed
to deny the Armenian Genocide for political reasons, said George. “The Jews are saying, it is too bitter in our
throats, we can’t do it any more.”
“We’re
trying to teach the world today that it’s in the interest of governments to be
moral. How much better it is to prevent
loss of lives than to pay for the cleanup,” he said.
The April 24
lecture was preceded by a Memorial Service with Celebrant Very Rev. Fr. Hayrik Hovhannisyan in memory of
all who suffered and died in the Armenian Genocide of 1915. Following Mr. Shirinian’s
lecture, Mississauga Cellist Gayane Sahakyan played Groong, Dle Yaman and Sayat
Nova to an enthralled audience.
Prayer for
Loved One Who is Sick
Lord God, I
pray for (name), who has found the hope to call on your name and to summon your
power to hold up and to heal his/her soul and body. May s/he live and have life, and be restored
by prayer and by the power of God. Amen.
Remember
to Turn Off Your Cell Phone
Please turn off your cell
phone when you are at church, out of courtesy for your fellow faithful and
respect for the holiness of the Soorp Badarak.
A Lot of Kissing
Going on in Church
Yegeghetsees mee antsn yeghev…sern huntanoorus supretsav
If the greatest gift offered us at
Liturgy is Jesus Christ Himself, then the next best has to be the promise of
unity and love in the Kiss of Peace. As
we turn to embrace our pew neighbours, the words of Kreesdos ee mech mer announce that all of
our sorry, separate souls have become one, single, enormous, radiant, beloved
Church. Incredibly enough, that is what
we are empowered to be at Liturgy. We
assemble not for our private moment with God—that we can have at any other
time, any other place—but to become what we were constituted to be at baptism,
a member of the Body of Christ, the Church.
And since God is love (1 John 4:8),
there is a lot of kissing that goes on during Liturgy: we kiss the cross, we kiss the Gospel, and we
kiss one another, admittedly a bobbing of heads over one another’s shoulders, but…nevertheless. Kissing has its contractual side. At the end of a wedding ceremony, we kiss to
seal the vows we have just made. The
kiss of respect—for the cross, for the Bible, for a revered person—likewise promises
faithfulness, allegiance, and mutual love.
But the promise can also be false,
like Judas’ kiss. St. Ambrose wrote, “A
kiss conveys the force of love, and where there is no love, no faith, no
affection, what sweetness can there be in kisses?” And so with the gift comes a challenge. In that ritualized greeting, are we taking
seriously the invitation to meet our Lord halfway? “As I have loved you so you must love one
another. By this will all people know
you are my disciples…”
John 13:34-35.
God can indeed transform any
congregation into much, much more than the sum of its sinful parts. At the same time, he tenderly requests that
we shed our self-defining hatreds, our grudges, our judgments, our stingy creatureliness so that His love may pour out of us and be
made manifest in all we feel about and do and say to others.
Let me see others as you do, Lord,
with the eyes of the lover who does not judge the past but imagines the future,
who does not tally the flaws but treasures the
bounty. Amen.
From Weekly
Reflections on the Divine Liturgy for 2006, St. Nersess
Armenian Seminary, by Elise Antreassian-Bayizian.
Did you know?
News Stories and Photos Now
Available on St. Vartan’s Website: www.stvartan.ca., and Canadian Diocese
of Armenian Apostolic Church’s Website: www.armenianchurch.ca.
Armenian
Pavilion Makes You
PROUD TO BE
ARMENIAN
The countdown has begun. In four more weeks, we will be proudly
sharing our faith, language, culture, food and history as Armenians with
thousands of visitors to the Armenia Pavilion at Mississauga’s
multicultural festival Carassauga. Hours of planning and work have gone into preparing
for the festival that takes place on May 25, 26 and 27 this year.
There is still much work to be done,
and many hands will be needed on that fun and festive weekend celebrating who
we are. Yes, WE NEED YOU. We need your cheerful, energetic spirit and
joyous smiles to welcome and entertain our visitors. Please join in this tremendous project that
creates new bonds of friendship amongst us and a new understanding of ourselves
as a unique ethnic group in Canadian society.
It makes you feel proud to be Armenian when you are sharing your
Armenian-ness with an odar!
Please give Katie Shahinian (905)785-7626 or Christine Ermarkaryan
(905)825-5299 a call and become one of our valued volunteers at the Armenia
Pavilion. Please leave a message if
Katie or Christine aren’t in—or email us at anijan2@gmail.com. Youth and adults are all welcome helpers.
Schedule for May 2007
DIVINE LITURGY &
Activities
1
p.m. Sunday, May 6
Soorp Badarak & BBQ for Camp Ararat
8
p.m. Friday, May 18
1
p.m. Sunday, May 20
Soorp Badarak
May
25, 26, 27
Carassauga – Armenia Pavilion
Are You On
Our Mailing List?
Please fill out the forms
you can find on clipboards at the doors of the church today. The Parish Council
needs your help to keep its mailing list up-to-date. Sign up to receive church
news by email.
“I Will Pray For You”
Often I have said to people, “I will pray for you” but how often did I
really enter into the full reality of what that means? I now see how indeed I can enter deeply into
the other and pray to God from his center.
When I really bring my friends and the many I pray for into my innermost
being and feel their pains, their struggles, their cries in my own soul, then I
leave myself, so to speak, and become them, then I have compassion.
Compassion is God’s Gift to Me
Compassion lies at the heart of our prayer for our fellow human
beings. When I pray for the world, I
become the world; when I pray for the endless needs of the millions, my soul
expands and wants to embrace them all and bring them into the presence of
God. But in the midst of that experience
I realize that compassion is not mine but God’s gift to me. I can not embrace the world, but God
can. I cannot pray, but God can pray in
me. When God became as we are, that is,
when God allowed all of us to enter into his intimate life, it became possible
for us to share in his infinite compassion.
In praying for others, I lose myself and become the other, only to be found
by the divine love which holds the whole of humanity in a compassionate
embrace.
The Genessee Diary, Henri Nouwen, p. 144.
Have You
Worked Out Today?
Prayer is like exercise. I know it’s good for me and I benefit from
it, yet, as with exercise, I wish I did it more often. I know I would profit more.
The eternal
God is your refuge, and his everlasting arms are under you. Deut 33:27
Did you know that courage is
contagious? It is. And there’s no one better to catch courage from than a
familiar friend. Walking into a pitch-black room can be terribly frightening
when you’re all alone; but if you’ve got a friend by your side, the darkness
somehow loses its power, and your fears melt away. Surviving a relational hurt
can seem impossible alone, but the support of a friend puts things in a whole
new perspective.
Sometimes you won’t even be able to
tell who sprouted the courage first, for it flows back and forth between two
friends without need to recognize its beginning. When we see courage shining
from a friend’s heart, it may be hers or it may be our own we see reflected
there.
When the apostle Peter walked on the
water at Jesus’ bidding, he stood on the courage of another. He saw courage and
confidence in the face of his friend and Lord, and that courage became his own.
And when Peter’s courage failed, the hand of his faithful friend reached out
and rescued him from the churning waters.
When your courage falters, find a
friend and borrow some of hers. And when someone you love is shaking in her
boots, extend your own steady hand to infuse strength and peace into her
frightened heart. Courage can be transferred from one heart to another simply
by a shared look of understanding or a gentle touch of encouragement. The
courage given you by heaven above is not intended for your strengthening
along—it is meant to be shared with a friend.
Philis Boultinghouse, Hugs for
Girlfriends, 2002
Prayer is keeping company with God.
Why should I ask of him that he
would change for me the course of things?—I who ought to love, above all, the
order established by his wisdom and maintained by his providence, shall I wish
that order to be dissolved on my account?
The Philosopher Jean Jacques
Rousseau
Our next Soorp Badarak will be celebrated
by Very Rev. Fr. Hayrik Hovhannisyan on Sunday, May 20, at 1 p.m. at St.
Cuthbert’s Anglican Church in Oakville. We hope to see you then.