Western Diocese

By the order of His Eminence Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, Primate, the Western Diocese recently published Studies in Armenian Church –Origins, Doctrine, Worship- by Rev. Zaven Arzoumanian, PhD.

This 120-page book, basically in English, contains several studies pertaining to the history, traditions, doctrine and worship of the Armenian Apostolic Church, 17 articles, of which 6 are in Armenian. They cover the origins of Christianity in Armenia from the Apostolic Age to its official adoption as the state religion of Armenia in 301 AD by St. Gregory the Illuminator and King Trdat III, a survey on the traditions adopted by this ancient autocephalous church, the doctrine of the two natures of Christ –the divine and the human- as explained by Cyril the Patriarch of Alexandria (d. 444), according to the Armenian version of his Scholia de Incarnatione Unigenity, the bases of  ancient Christology adopted by the Third Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431 AD.

The book contains a survey on the shrines and excavations of early Chrstianity, the process of the invention of the Armenian alphabet in the early 5^th century, followed by the translation of the Holy Bible into Armenian, and treats the Armenian Church calendar, the cycle of the Feasts of the entire year, Dominical, Saints, and Fasting days, their distribution throughout the year, as well as a proposal submitted to the Mother See Holy Etchmiadzin to Canonize the Armenian Martyrs of the 1915 Genocide as a group.

The book is sponsored by David and Margaret Mgrublian and is available in the Diocesan Bookstore in Burbank. 818-558-7474.