wfn.org | Episcopalians mourn death of Karekin I

[Daphne Mack <dmack@dfms.org>]

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Kathryn McCormick
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212/922-5383

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99-105

Churches mourn death of Karekin I, leader of Armenian Apostolic 
Church

by Kathryn McCormick

     (ENS) Church leaders are mourning the death of His Holiness 
Karekin I, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, who 
died June 29 after a long illness. He had worked for years to 
strengthen and deepen the ecumenical relations of his church at 
both world and national levels.

     "His qualities of spirituality, scholarship, and ecumenical 
leadership have graced the wider ecclesiastical world and stand 
as a credit to the courage and determination of the Armenian 
church and people even in the face of earthquakes, genocide, and 
persecution," Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold said in a 
statement.

     By 1995, when he was elected catholicos, Karekin I already 
had played a major role in the World Council of Churches. He was 
elected to the council's central and executive committees in 1968 
and served as vice-moderator of the committees from 1975 to 1983. 
He also served on the WCC's faith and order commission.

     He was an observer to the Second Vatican Council in 1962 and 
the 1968 Lambeth Conference, and was later instrumental in the 
establishment of the Middle East Council of Churches, serving as 
president.

     In a tribute to Karekin I, the WCC called him "one of the 
important architects of ecumenical relations in modern times."

     Griswold recalled Karekin I as an active church leader who 
was "loved and respected by Anglicans around the world, including 
the Episcopal Church in the U.S.A."

     Karekin Sarkissian was a doctoral student at Oxford 
University under prominent Anglican scholars, Griswold noted, 
adding that he later was chosen to be the preacher at the 
installation of Desmond Tutu as the first black dean of 
Johannesburg Cathedral.

     "When His Holiness was award the degree of doctor of 
divinity, honoris causa, by the General Theological Seminary on 
May 6, 1998," Griswold recalled, "he congratulated Anglicans for 
maintaining in harmony both the catholic and evangelical elements 
of the Christian faith and further remarked how it was 'difficult 
to draw a distinction between what is Armenian in me and what is 
Anglican in me.'

     "Anglicans will remember him for these personal and pastoral 
qualities, just as Christian scholars will remember him for his 
groundbreaking and hopeful studies on the Christological 
definition of the fourth ecumenical council of Chalcedon," 
Griswold said.

     The WCC commented that Karekin I will be remembered for his 
unfinished agenda--he was co-president of the Pan Armenian 
Committee, which is preparing and coordinating the celebrations 
of 1,700 years of Christian Armenia, to be culminated in 200l.

--Kathryn McCormick is associate director of the Office of News 
and Information of the Episcopal Church.