Aztag Daily (Beirut) 14 August 2004
The Challenges Facing the Armenian Church. An Interview with Hratch Tchilingirian
by Khatchig Mouradian
"The Armenian Church hides, under its each and every stone, a secret path ascending to the heavens", wrote the famous Armenian poet, Vahan Tekeyan. Yet, the Armenian Church is more than a religious institution that has acted as a "mediator" between Armenians and their God. Having survived the shifting tides of time for more than seventeen centuries, this "unique organization", as Professor Hratch Tchilingirian calls it in this interview, has served its people as much as, if not more than, it has served God. Today, in the age of globalization, secularization and false crusades, the Armenians - despite their constant boasting about having the oldest Christian state in the world - are also following this global trend, by gradually distancing themselves from established religious institutions and, at times, looking for spiritual answers elsewhere.