I strongly and unequivocally condemn the shameful and sacrilegious campaign organized on December 18 under the patronage of the government and with the participation of eight bishops against the Holy Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin of the Armenian Church. This was mentioned in the statement made by the Baptist Bishop from the detention center.
"What happened is not just a disagreement or an intra-church disagreement. it was a conscious blow to the beating heart of our age-old spiritual identity, an attempt to undermine the foundation on which the Armenian people have stood for centuries. Mother See Holy Etchmiadzin is not only a stone structure, spiritual and administrative center. it is the living pillar of our faith, the core of our spiritual identity, the sanctuary around which the united Armenian people have resisted violence, foreign yoke and apostate trials for centuries.
Raising a hand against that holiness is not courage, but spiritual suicide. The exact description of the actions of this tyrannical and powerful group is the following condemning word of the prophet Jeremiah. "Woe to him who builds his house, but not with justice, and his lofts, but with injustice" (Jeremiah 12: 13). Any step based on injustice is doomed to collapse, and those who chose that path to historical shame.
These people have forgotten or deliberately violated the reality that they are not street activists or government henchmen, but clergy who have sworn allegiance before God's Holy Tabernacle, whose calling is to preserve the unity of the Church, not to divide it. Prophet Isaiah's words sound like a sentence for them today. "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who call light darkness and darkness light" (Isaiah E:20). On December 18, you chose that path, calling darkness light, rebellion piety, and loyalty crime.
With your weak, illegal, lawless and adventurous behavior, you mislead the believing people, knowingly serving the forces that have always sought to destroy the Armenian Church from within.
With gratitude and support, I warmly greet the pilgrim congregation of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, the faithful bishops and priests, from priest to class, deacons and our faithful people, who did not leave the Mother Church during these trying days. Join Saint Etchmiadzin, bow down to its legitimate, anointed and nationally elected Patriarch. History will record who stood next to holiness and who stood against holiness," the statement said.
