From Christmas 1999 to Easter 2001, celebrate the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Christ with traditional religious celebrations in Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem welcomes Armenians worldwide to join in Christian pilgrimage to Armenian Jerusalem to experience firsthand its priceless treasures and timeless history.

• Visit the lantern-bedecked Cathedral of St. James, the second largest manuscript library in the world, the Holy Archangels? Church and the nearby olive tree to which Christ was tied before imprisonment
• Worship at the sepulchral church of the Virgin Mary in the Gethsemane Garden, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Church of the Nativity 
• Attend unique religious services with the expected participation of two Catholicoi and international church leaders, and the President of the Armenian Republic (January 2000)

Contact your local travel agent immediately and, individually or in groups,
prepare to experience the Holy Land in the Year 2000!
Schedules of specific events will be posted on the Patriarchate?s official website: www.armenian-patriarchate.org
 

Christianity started spreading throughout Armenia during the first century.  According to tradition, Saints Thaddeus and Bartholomew, two of Christ?s apostles, were the first evangelists to reach the mountains and valleys of Armenia.

The Christian faith was proclaimed the state religion of Armenia in 301 AD through the evangelizing and organizational efforts of St. Gregory the Illuminator and King Trdat III the Great.  Agathangelos, author of the history of the Armenian conversion, describes how the royal family was baptized in the Euphrates river alongside the entire population.  To mark this turning point in the destiny of the church, the foundations of the Cathedral of Holy Etchmiadzin were laid in 301-303 AD in the city of Vagharshabad.  The cathedral became the most sacred spiritual center for Armenians worldwide.

The Armenian Church inspired the flourishing of a new Armenian culture.  It promoted the creation of the Armenian alphabet in 404-406 AD by the monk St. Mesrob Mashtots.  Under the guidance of Catholicos St. Sahak, it also helped with the translation of the Holy Scriptures and the liturgical and patristic literature from Greek and Syriac into Armenian.  Following the loss by Armenia of its territorial sovereignty, the church led the nation throughout the centuries and helped it survive numerous setbacks and disasters.  As early as May 451 AD, Armenians were forced to defend their Christian faith at the Battle of Avarayr, the first battle in history fought for the freedom of conscience.

The Armenian Church preserves the doctrines and rites of the ancient Christian Church in their purity and simplicity.  It acknowledges the ecumenical councils of Nicaea (325 AD), Constantinople (381 AD) and Ephesus (431 AD) where the fundamental dogmas of Christianity were adopted by all the churches.  However, it does not embrace the fourth council of Chalcedon (451 AD), since Armenia at the time was engaged in a bitter war with Persia and did not participate in the council.  As such, it shares the ecclesiology and tradition of the family of Oriental Orthodox Churches, namely Coptic, Syrian and Ethiopian.

The Armenian Church administers the seven sacraments of baptism, chrysmation (confirmation), Eucharist, penance, matrimony, ordination and extreme unction (order of the sick).  Baptism is administered by three-fold immersion, with chrysmation and communion following immediately thereafter.   The liturgy is always sung, and Holy Communion is given in both elements of the unleavened bread and unmixed red wine.  At the conclusion of the Eucharist, fragments of the unleavened bread are blessed by the priest and distributed to the non-communicant faithful.

Across the centuries, the spirit of tolerance and renewal in the Armenian Church have translated themselves in the motto that unity applies for essentials, liberty for doubtful matters and charity for all things.

In 2001, the Armenian Apostolic Church will mark the 1700th anniversary of the proclamation of Christianity as the national religion of Armenia.  In Jerusalem, those joyous celebrations will occur under the auspices of His Beatitude Archbishop Torkom 
Manoogian, Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem, a man steeped in ecumenism, music and literature.