Armenian Apostolic Church

The congregation of the Armenian Apostolic Church of La Crescenta and La Cañada celebrated Palm Sunday with traditional Armenian prayers and ceremonies at Lanterman Auditorium. Incense filled the room, and the altar was flanked with palm leaves, which are a sign of triumph and victory in the time of Jesus. Archpriest Father Hovsep Hagopian led the Palm Sunday service. After the procession, in a special ceremony called ?Teruhnpatz,? Hagopian and a deacon asked God to open the gates of heaven to the congregation and accept them into his heart.

Dozens of parishioners demonstrated outside St. Mary's Armenian Apostolic Church in the rain Sunday to express their anger over the transfer of a popular reverend who was forced to leave the country because his visa expired. His supporters said church officials did not work to extend Fr. Rev. Barthev Gulumian's visa because of internal politics, sparking a campaign on social media against the Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Gulumian was removed from his Glendale post, where he has worked for the last six years, and transferred to Venezuela.

Archpriest Father Hovsep Hagopian, parish priest of the Armenian Apostolic Church of La Cañada Flintridge, will discuss peacemakers from a passage in the Bible (Matthew 5:9) at the 10:30 a.m. service on Sunday, July 16 in Lanterman Auditorium, 4491 Cornishon Ave., LCF. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called Sons of God," is the full passage that Father Hagopian will base his sermon on. "I am going to talk about peace and the peacemakers," the father said. "Peace is a precious legacy from Christ.

FOREST LAWN, GLENDALE -- Catholicos Aram I, the spiritual leader of the Armenian Apostolic Church, will deliver an address at 8:30 a.m. today at Forest Lawn, Glendale during a program commemorating the 1,700-year anniversary of the church. The pontiff will speak to more than 700 students of Prelay Armenian Church School. His appearance at Forest Lawn will mark the second day of a five-day tour of Southern California. On Wednesday, Aram I addressed the congregation of St. Mary's Armenian Apostolic Church in Glendale.

Claudia Peschiutta GLENDALE -- The holidays are far from over for thousands of Glendale residents. Armenians throughout the area are preparing to celebrate Christmas this week as the Armenian Apostolic Church observes the holiday on Jan. 6. "Armenians say, 'Happy New Year' and [then] 'Merry Christmas,' " said Sossi Kevorkian of Glendale. "Our saying goes the opposite way." Armenian Christmas, or "Soorp Dznoont," celebrates the birth and baptism of Christ, said Father Sipan Mekhsian of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America, based in Burbank.

Darleene Barrientos The former archbishop of the Armenian Apostolic Church of North America's Western diocese went home Friday to recover from an angioplasty operation at Glendale Adventist Medical Center. Relatives said Vatche Hovsepian, 73, was feeling fine after settling in at home. "He's doing very well," nephew Ara Tavitian said. Hovsepian was completing a ceremony at St. Gregory Armenian Apostolic Church in Pasadena on Tuesday when he collapsed, according to diocese officials.

Tim Willert GLENDALE -- While it may seem like an odd pairing, a Presbyterian choir will perform tonight for the world leader of the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church. Choir members from Glendale Presbyterian and other area churches will stage a concert for His Holiness Karekin II at a private concert tonight in Glendale. Karekin II, is making his first official pontifical tour of the United States since he was elected Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians in 1999.

Claudia Peschiutta GLENDALE - By Wednesday afternoon, Zartik Garabedian was ready for Christmas Eve -- one without ham and turkey or pies and fruit cakes or cider and egg nog. The dinner this Glendale resident was preparing for several close friends and family members would feature rice, lavash, kookoo and smoked white fish, all to be washed down with red wine -- items traditional to the Armenian Christmas Eve...

Gretchen Hoffman Area churches are gearing up for what for some residents is the second Christmas celebration of the season. Observing Christmas on Jan. 6, which falls on Monday this year, is a tradition older than that of celebrating on Dec. 25. The Roman Catholic Church changed the date of the celebration in the 4th century to prevent people from worshipping pagan gods. Christmas Day is one of five major feast days in the Armenian Apostolic Church, said Deacon Steven H. Gimian of St. Kevork Armenian Apostolic Church of Glendale.

The Environmental and Planning Board will meet at 10:30 a.m. Thursday to discuss construction projects up for review. The board will consider the environmental documents of four projects, including a square-footage addition to a single-family home at 330 Whiting Woods Road, construction of a car wash for the Lexus dealership at 123 W. Palmer Ave., replacement of a telecommunications facility at 1250 Beaudry Blvd....

Dozens of parishioners demonstrated outside St. Mary's Armenian Apostolic Church in the rain Sunday to express their anger over the transfer of a popular reverend who was forced to leave the country because his visa expired. His supporters said church officials did not work to extend Fr. Rev. Barthev Gulumian's visa because of internal politics, sparking a campaign on social media against the Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Gulumian was removed from his Glendale post, where he has worked for the last six years, and transferred to Venezuela.

I truly love my job. It has provided me with numerous experiences that would have been laughably improbable, were it not for my position. This week marked another one of those occasions: I had a personal audience with a spiritual leader of the Armenian church, His Holiness Catholicos Aram I. The pontiff, who resides in Lebanon, arrived in the United States on Oct. 6 and is staying through early next week. Though not an elderly man - he's in his mid 60s - Aram I's energy belies his white hair and beard.

A curious event that kids worldwide can only dream of has been taking place in Armenia for thousands of years: a nationwide water fight where you have free rein to dump water on the nearest friend or stranger without any repercussions. Known as Vartavar, this festival is a national tradition where the only way you can escape being drenched with homemade super soakers or full buckets from conspicuous balconies is staying cooped up indoors on a dry, hot summer day. Although it has been somewhat absorbed into the Armenian Apostolic Church, Vartavar's pagan origins give some insight into the traditions Armenians observed before the country came to have its much-touted status as the first state to adopt Christianity as its religion.

GLENDALE — The La Crescenta-based Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America filed a $105-million lawsuit Tuesday against the J. Paul Getty Museum, claiming the institution illegally bought seven pages from a sacred Bible. The Western Prelacy claims that the seven pages, which date back to 1256, were ripped from the Armenian Orthodox Church's Zeyt'un Gospels during the Armenian Genocide, according to the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The church is also requesting that the pages be returned.

It began with eight students in 1975, but in the 35 years since, Vahan and Anoush Chamlian Armenian School has grown to accommodate 500 first- through eighth-graders. Its 35th anniversary celebration Wednesday drew religious and local government officials, including Mayor Frank Quintero, who lauded the school for its place in maintaining Armenian culture and traditions among Glendale’s youth. “It is not a celebration of 35 years of dedicated service, but the success of the present and expectations and visions of the future,” Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian, prelate of Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church, said in an Armenian and English address.

On Aug. 10, His Eminence Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, primate of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church, celebrated the Divine Liturgy and delivered the sermon at the Armenian Apostolic Church of La Cañada and Crescenta Valley. Archpriest Father Hovsep Hagopian, the parish priest, served the altar for this special occasion. During the three-hour long service, Derderian ordained Martin Zakaryan as a deacon. Also ordained were Gary Sarafian and Alan Janoyan as sub-deacons.

The Blessing of the Grapes, an Armenian tradition as old as Christianity itself, was celebrated at Glendale Adventist Medical Center’s chapel Wednesday with incense, candles, and prayers from Armenian religious leaders. Hospital staff and visitors sat before an altar heaped with bags of grapes as Rev. Muron Aznikian, who is from the prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church, talked about the ceremony’s significance. The ritual blessing of the grapes is an annual harvest-time event that began when Armenian pagans offered their first fruit of the season to the gods in hopes of protecting their crops from natural disasters, Aznikian said.

Armenian culture was shared through song and dance, food and fellowship during this weekend’s Armenian Festival organized by the Armenian Relief Society of Western USA. The event at the Glendale Civic Auditorium was the seventh annual festival organized by the group, and it marked the 98th anniversary of the formation of the Armenian Relief Society, a group that provides humanitarian assistance and social services in the U.S. and abroad....