Armenia

I suppose I should have included reference to a very cool Armenian priest with his own blog in the previous post, but think that he deserves a mention in his own right. Via the rather aesthetically pleasing Artyom Reader comes word that not only is the Armenian priest in question cool, but he’s a new addition to the Armenian blogosphere. This guy sounds fantastic.

A couple of weeks ago I posted about the trip organized by Fr. Vazgen, the pastor of the St. Peter Armenian Church in Glendale, to Rwanda where he planned to collect testimonies from people that survived the genocide in Rwanda as well as to raise awareness of the ongoing genocide in Sudan. Fr. Vazgen has given us all an example of the virtue of raising one’s voice for the victims of genocide, not just of those from the past, but more importantly for those who suffer it now.

This is simply fantastic news. What a great thing to have online, and what an excellent example to set. I’ve always considered that if you truly believe in historical justice you should give a damn about other Genocides and crimes against humanity. I think we should all feel proud of this blogging Armenian priest, especially when you actually look at what he’s writing on his blog.

AVEGA is a nationwide widows support group – and by support, we are to understand all types – physical, emotional, and psychological. Today we visited one of the their headquarters in the city. Don presented a report which he had prepared – it documents the stories of close to a hundred widows of the Genocide. The importance of documentation cannot be underplayed. This trip is an eyeopener because you forget that their construction effort is truly multi-dimensional. It’s important not to minimize the work to be done here in terms of a house here, a building there, a storehouse here or even a bag of rice there. It’s rebuilding lives, areas, people, the country.

Systematic documentation of the Armenian Genocide didn’t take place until five or six decades after the event – when many of the survivors were getting old and, unfortunately, many were no longer there to witness to the events. What would have happened if a Don Miller were documenting Armenian voices in 1927? Can you imagine if there were hundreds of thousands of voices attesting to the atrocities? So the work of documentation today in Rwanda has to be on equal par with all the other programs that are in place.

Anyway, Father Vazken’s blog is online at http://dervaz.blogspot.com/. Father Vazken also appears to be very active in reaching out to youth. I’m not religious, but what a great guy. There’s also an article on his work here.

The Rev. Vazken Movsesian sees grim similarities between recent genocides around the world and the stories he heard from his grandmothers about their escapes from death more than 90 years ago in the Ottoman Empire.

Movsesian, senior pastor at St. Peter Armenian Church Youth Ministry Center in Glendale, will leave for Rwanda on Friday to chronicle the African country’s 1994 genocide and to bring attention to the ongoing mass killings in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Movsesian, 49, said survivors’ accounts from Rwanda and Darfur resemble what Movsesian’s grandmothers told him about escaping the Ottoman Empire around 1915: the men being separated from the women, the women being raped and the children growing up as orphans, with acts of barbarism along the way, he said.

[…]

“He was deeply affected, personally, by his grandmothers,” Donald Miller said of Movsesian. “Both his grandmothers are survivors of the genocide and he himself in his own ministry has really attempted to communicate, particularly to young people, the tragedy of genocide.”

Movsesian said all members of the delegation to Rwanda have varying reasons for going, and there is no single group mission.

But Movsesian and the Millers plan to talk to orphan survivors who raised their siblings, and they both plan to observe how charities in Africa operate.

Anyway, so cool is this guy that I have to wonder if it’s not the same Armenian priest who once wrote about why he got his ear pierced. Can anyone tell me?

On a lighter note� I wish I could tell you that I did it so that I would have a theme for an article or a topic for a sermon. That’s not why I did it. I did it for the same reason some of you wear a bracelet, a necklace, or a wig/toupee; or for the same reason you color your hair, wear designer clothes, smoke cigarettes, eat hamburgers, drive a nice car, etc. I did it as a matter of choice.

What I did was simply get my ear pierced and place an earring in my left lobe. Sounds simple enough? I wasn’t so naive to believe that this little ornament wouldn’t cause some people discomfort. But never did I figure that there would be so much back-room discussion over such a small object. It proved one thing beyond a doubt: people certainly don’t have many problems, if a little earring can occupy so much of their concern.

We all hold certain stereotypes by which we look at people. A priest has his share of “baggage.” I remember how amazed a parishioner was to learn that I had gone to a Jethro Tull concert. After all, a priest shouldn’t enjoy rock & roll music, right? And when it comes to earrings, a priest shouldn’t wear one, right?

[…]

Silly thing, isn’t it? Commotion about an earring? Don’t we have real problems in our lives, in our community, in our world? Of course we do. And if someone desires to look a bit differently, act a bit uniquely, laugh a little more intensely, why stand in their way?