Mother See adopts model bylaws for Church governance

by Armenian Reporter staff

Published: Thursday November 05, 2009

Services in conjunction with the third Diocesan Representative Assembly at Etchmiadzin. Mother See

Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II. Mother See.

Vagharshapat, Armenia - The third Diocesan Representative Assembly of the Armenian Church was held in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin from October 31 to November 4 to review, discuss, and approve the guidelines on Diocesan Bylaws and Parish Policies.

Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians, presided over the meetings, with the participation of representatives from the Armenian Patriarchates of Jerusalem and Constantinople; Diocesan Primates from Armenia and the diaspora; high-ranking clergy; members of the Supreme Spiritual Council; and representatives of the laity.

Taking part in the opening ceremonies were President Bako Sahakian of Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia's Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian.

In his remarks, the Catholicos reflected on the development of general guidelines for the Armenian Church in recent history, affirming that the mission of the Church is aided by uniform administration.

"The establishment of guidelines for the Diocesan Bylaws will create stable circumstances for administering Diocesan life. The adoption of this document will be a substantial step in the process of the establishment of the Armenian Church Constitution, and will reinforce the historical-canonical character of the Armenian Church," stated the pontiff.

History in the making

This meeting of the Diocesan Representative Assembly was indeed historic. "Anytime a major organizational change takes place, it is a milestone," Dr. Varoujan Altebarmakian, former chair of the Western Diocesan Council and current member of the Supreme Spiritual Council, told the Armenian Reporter. "This document created a governing structure, a new format, which is more consistent. The fact that delegates from all the dioceses took part in this session was very important."

The work involved in drafting a new constitution for the Armenian Church goes back to the election of Catholicos Karekin I in 1995.

After the death of Catholicos Vazken I in 1994, a National Ecclesiastical Assembly (NEA) was convened for the first time since 1955 to elect a new Catholicos.

The Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia was elected as the new Catholicos of All Armenians and became Karekin I. Because the NEA is the highest body in the Armenian Church, during the election in 1995 for a new Catholicos, it also discussed one of the Church's most pressing issues - the creation of a constitution for the worldwide Armenian Church.

Delegates voted to charge the newly elected Catholicos Karekin I with this task, which entailed convening another session of the NEA. This meeting would in essence, serve as a constitutional convention that was to be held in Holy Etchmiadzin sometime before the year 2000.

Although a committee was appointed for this task, Karekin I fell ill only a few years after his election. According to Rev. Fr. Ktrij Devejian, the foreign press secretary of the Mother See, the task was too monumental and "the draft documents coming from the committee were lacking in scope, quality, depth, and understanding."

After the untimely death of Karekin I, another NEA was convened in October 1999 to elect a new Catholicos. Karekin II was elected as Catholicos. During the meeting, the 450 delegates from around the world again raised the issue of the constitution and charged the new Catholicos to form a more comprehensive committee of clergy and lay people to do the work. "This time they also voted to empower a smaller group of people to do the actual job of meeting every three to four years to review progress on the document and vote to accept it when it was finally ready," Der Ktrij explained.

The 450 delegates also agreed that it would be more effective to meet in smaller numbers for a constitutional convention. Therefore it was decided that each diocesan primate, each diocesan council chair or vice chair (non-clergy), members of the Supreme Spiritual Council, and other bishops (who may not have administrative responsibilities) would form a new body called the Diocesan Representative Assembly (DRA), which would be made up of approximately 100 people in total. This body, which would be easier to organize and more practical than gathering 450 people in Armenia, would meet every four years.

A new constitution committee composed of clergy and lay people began their work and provided progress reports twice a year to the Supreme Spiritual Council and the Catholicos, and also an interim progress report to the full Diocesan Representative Assembly in 2003.

The constitution committee decided to compartmentalize and tackle this task in phases. "They realized that over the past 100 years, each diocese in each country developed its own customs and traditions based upon local and regional needs," explained Der Ktrij. "At times dioceses contradicted each other and sometimes they even contradicted centuries of Church canons and traditions."

With the blessing of the Catholicos and the Supreme Spiritual Council, the constitution committee decided that before proceeding they first needed to have uniformity in the over 40 dioceses throughout the world before they could actually have one comprehensive constitution for the Armenian Church. They began working on parish bylaws and diocesan bylaws, which eventually merged into a document called the Guidelines for Diocesan Bylaws for the Armenian Church. This document, consisting of 17 articles and approximately 95 clauses, would need to be approved by all dioceses and incorporated into their local dioceses and parishes.

The Guidelines for Diocesan Bylaws for the Armenian Church was finally ready this year. It was presented to the Supreme Spiritual Council, which approved it for presentation to the Diocesan Representative Assembly.

In the meantime, draft versions of the document were sent to the dioceses for review. "All the dioceses received multiple drafts over the years," explained Dr. Altebarmakian and added that this process was one of the reasons that the meeting went as smoothly as it did. "It created a concensus, a flexibility. While it is not a perfect document yet, it is a great foundation."