Women and the Armenian Church: Breaking the Patriarchal Barriers
When we consider the pillars of our communal life, the Armenian family is an obvious choice—a source of pride through the centuries as a bonding agent for our sustainability, continuity and values. The family was the source of establishing and maintaining a profession. Multiple generations from the clan were doctors, merchants, farmers, jewelers or pharmacists. Armenians have taken pride in themselves as builders and contractors. The list of Armenian pioneers in education, technology, medicine and business is impressive. Families have been noted for their expertise and are respected by their peers. In the diaspora, it was the Armenian family that transferred the roots from the homeland to their adopted nation. Although the branches of the tree were cut by genocide, Armenians have always taken great pride in their family relationships with extended family considered a singular unit.
Already a subscriber?Log in here
This story is FREE for you...
Create a free account to access this and four more articles, and get more sent to you with our e-newsletter.By submitting your email address you agree for Hairenik Association, Inc. to send you communication by email.
Thank you for this article. I was just discussing this very topic today concerning our Church. We often talk of attrition, but this never comes up as a reason. We will never hold on if we continue to subjugate half the population.
The issue of women in the Armenian Apostolic Church priesthood was raised to the Catholicos of blessed memory Karekin I Sarkissian during his meeting with the young parishioners of the St. John’s Church in Southfield, MI. during his first pontifical visit to U.S. after his election as the Catholicos of All Armenians. I attended the meeting with our son and niece.
The Catholicos made it clear that such change would not happen under his watch and he said the tradition of men’s priesthood has come about because Jesus chose his disciples among men and that it was not meant to be discriminatory in any ways. I wish we had recorded his lighthearted and profound ways of treating and presenting to the audience that important subject.
Personally I see no compelling need to change nor do I find that it will enhance my spirituality and humanity or it discriminates in any way the women who are dear to me and their gender.
But, that does not meant to say that that there should not be more visible roles for women but I am not versed ienough in the complexity of the institution the Armenian Apostolic Church is to suggest how and in what capacity without altering the centuries old tradition with a big T as the Catholicos noted.
Thank you for your comments Vahe. The areas
that I have suggested are not in the priesthood.
It seems that frequently when we discuss women and
the church, it only includes the priesthood. There are
many ways to enhance the role of women as noted.
My hope is that we engage in serious dialogue
to address this important issue. We can not expect
women ( or men for that matter) to accept this double
standard whole the world moves forward.
I cannot tell you how much this article means to me.
My father was divorced and so when he and my mother married…they had to elope. When they returned to my mother’s home…the “committee” said…”You have to have a church wedding to bring honor to the family.” So they did. The pastor of what is now St. John’s United Church of Christ officiated the wedding. That is the church where is was baptized, confirmed and ordained.
I did spend 5 years at St. James Armenian Apostolic Church but returned to the UCC. I won’t go into all of that here.
I have been ordained for 30 years and while I fully appreciate my denomination…there is always a part of me that never feels like I am home.
This article has given me a sense of home and I thank you so very much.
May God continue to shine through your life work.
Dear Rev.Dr. Susan:
I am so happy to have read your comments. The entire purpose of the column is to encourage dialogue on important issues of our church and community. I can think of no issue of greater importance than our communal spiritual identity. As an advocate for the Armenian. Church, it saddened me that the church in the western diaspora has lost people especially women who deal with real identity issues. But I also find joy when we hear that they have found their place with God.
Thank you again for your kind feedback.
Armenian church needs to be reformed – back to its origin, NOT to be formed to Western stle churches, where there is no christianity anymore!
What would such a reform look like.
All humankind is sacred.
Without woman there would be no life.
While men are amazed at their God given privileges,
God, Our Father, did not discriminate when he created woman
Jesus had loyal disciples of the female persuasion, though not the traditional first twelve. I think it is an error to assume that He only meant for men to serve in that capacity—we don’t really know that. In Paul’s writings he greets women, refers to them as co-workers, and even called one an apostle. Certainly women played a vital role in the building of the early church. The tradition of deaconesses once existed in the church. Why did this change? Is it because once hierarchy was developed, women were seen as less entitled to lead within a traditionally patriarchical society?
I think it is time to seriously consider the ordaining of women deacons in our church and to recognize the desire for pious service by our mothers, sisters and daughters.
In any case I would suggest that all talk about inferiority and inequality is really irrelevant and un-Christian.For the basic fact about the sexes is not that they are inferior or superior to each other but that they are different. The objections to the ordination of women are not those of blind prejudice,male chauvinism, or even of expediency and psychology,but of fundamental theology.The restriction of he priesthood to men is emphatically not a sign of male superiority; the priest’s imaging of Christ is a service, a ministry;the church’s hierarchy reveres that of the world – the apostolic minister is ‘ last of all'(I Cor.4:9) and servant of all (Mk.10:44)
There can be no fully orthodox theology either of the Incarnation or of salvation without to the male gender of Christ.His self-giving on the cross is the archetype of every man’s attempt to give himself in love to a woman(Eph 2: 15ff).
Far from presenting the appearance of a social order which has discovered how to control and direct the tremendous forces which science and technology have released,it bears all the marks of a situation which has got thoroughly out of hand.The Church should be loyal,both in ordering her own life and in presenting the Gospel to the contemporary world, to the revelation which she has received from God in Christ.
The ordination of women in the Anglican Communion and in the Episcopal Church of the USA and Canada has been a ‘ new obstacle and threat’ on the path to Christian reconciliation.
The Armenian church should be alert to the threat of ‘Protestanism and to capitulate to the attitudes and perverse and ephemeral assumptions of the present day ‘
Reading this all again much later and what continues to baffle me is the reality that no human would be born if it were not for a woman. Interesting how that detail gets lost.
Thank you for this article. The more people speak out, the more likely we will see change. And we must continue to pray.
I am Armenian and was raised in the Armenian Apostolic church. However upon adulthood I found myself leaving the Armenian church for more protestant churches where women could be recognized as clergy. Now in my later years of life I have returned to the Armenian church due to a longing for my heritage ; however, the discomfort of knowing the patriarchal structure is still in place preventing women from fully participating. I have even heard some professional women refusing to take communion since we are required to wear a head scarf which represents our subordinate position to men. This is very sad. Just food for thought.