Rev. Boynerian Receives Doctoral Degree
WATERTOWN, Mass.—The Armenian Memorial Church of Watertown recently announced that its pastor, Rev. Avedis Boynerian, was awarded a doctorate of ministry (D. Min.) from the Andover Newton Theological School in Newton on May 21.
Andover Newton is the oldest theological seminary in the country. Rev. Dr. Boynerian earned this degree in a program designed for ministers who have been serving a church for a period of 7-10 years. He completed the program in five years while serving the church full-time.
After successfully completing the nine-course program, he was required to write a dissertation; entitled “Whose Church Is It?,” the dissertation focused on the challenges of the Armenian Evangelical Church in North America, emphasizing solutions and the role of leadership. It received High Honors.
His educational doctoral program was made possible by a generous bequest from the late Dr. Edward and Lucy Karian of Watertown, devoted former members of the church. Among his previous degrees, he holds a BA from Haigazian College (now Haigazian University) in Beirut, Lebanon; a masters in theology from the Near East School of Theology in Beirut and Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey. He has held numerous leadership roles in the Armenian Protestant community in Syria, where he was pastor for 16 years in an Armenian Church in Aleppo.
Rev. Dr. Boynerian has been pastor of the Armenian Memorial Church since October 2003. He served as president of the Watertown Ministerial Association in 2005-06. He has held numerous positions in the Armenian Evangelical Union of North America (AEUNA), including chair of the Ministry Committee from 2006-08, member of the Board of Directors from 2006-10, and moderator from 2008-10. In addition, he has broadcast Armenian sermons on the Armenian Independent Radio of Boston from 2004 through the present, and has co-authored a book and published several articles.
Rev. Dr. Boynerian lives in Belmont with his wife Dr. Arpi Pamboukian and their two sons Antranig, 12, and Arek, 10. He played soccer with Homenetmen, a first division Armenian soccer team in Beirut, from 1977-81 and co-coached the Belmont 2nd Soccer Team in 2004-05.
Congratulations to Rev. Dr. Boynerian! May God continue to bless him in his ministry. One small correction in the article. Andover Newton Theological School is not the oldest seminary in the country; it is the oldest Graduate School of Theology. ANTS was explicitly not founded as a seminary, but as a graduate school where everyone, including those not interested in ordained ministry, could go to study theology.