Crisis in the Armenian Church: Catholicos Karekin II convenes Council of Bishops amid accusations and schism

Against the backdrop of the escalating internal conflict and confrontation with the Armenian authorities, Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II has announced the convening of a Council of Bishops. The emergency meeting of the top clergy of the Armenian Apostolic Church (AAC) will be held in Echmiadzin from December 10-12 to discuss the current crisis, which, according to a number of hierarchs, has no analogues in modern history.

As Sputnik Armenia reports, the decision to convene the council was a continuation of the discussions held at the meeting of the Supreme Spiritual Council in early November. The official goal is to consider «the current situation around the Armenian Apostolic Church, as well as issues related to the inner-church life».

The convening of the council comes amid a serious confrontation between the AAC and the government of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. The conflict has intensified after the head of the government made harsh remarks to the clergy and his initiative to change the procedure for electing the Catholicos, which implies strengthening the role of the state. The situation was aggravated by the arrests on various charges of the heads of three dioceses: Archbishops Bagrat Galstanyan and Mikael Ajapakhyan, as well as Bishop Mkrtich Proshyan.

A new round of escalation began on November 27, when a group of AAC hierarchs published a statement accusing Catholicos Karekin II of trying to cover up Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan’ s «sacrilegious act», referring to the intimate videos that appeared online. The Archbishop himself claims that the recordings are fabricated. On the same day, the authors of the statement met with Prime Minister Pashinian. Already on November 29, the ten hierarchs issued a new appeal, demanding that the Catholicos voluntarily abdicate. They accused him of arbitrary rule, political interference and actions incompatible with the mission of the head of the Church.

In response, the arrested Archbishops Bagrat Galstanyan and Mikayel Ajapakhyan demanded that the bishops who met with the Prime Minister be deprived of their dignity, calling the current situation in the AAC unprecedented in the last 200 years. Their position was also supported by Bishop Mkrtich Proshyan, who is in pre-trial detention center and condemned the actions of the ten hierarchs. Thus, the upcoming Council of Bishops will have to find ways out of the deepest crisis threatening the unity of the Armenian Church.

Earlier, the Armenian Apostolic Church officially announced that Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II does not intend to leave his post. This statement was a response to the growing pressure from a group of high-ranking bishops and criticism from Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who called for the Catholicos’s voluntary resignation.