Ecumenical Trends in the Armenian Church

Ecumenical Review, The, Jan, 1999

NOTES

(1) See Erant Ter-Minassiantz, "Die armenische Kirche in ihren Beziehungen zu den syrischen Kirchen bis zum Ende des 13. Jahrhunderts", in Texte und Untersuchungen, vol. 26, Leipzig, 1904.

(2) Introduction to The Seal of Faith, ed. Karapet Ter-Mkrtchian, Etchmiadzin, 1914, p.vii.

(3) For the patristic, theological and ecumenical importance of The Seal of Faith, see J. Lebon, "Les citations patristiques grecques du Seau de la Foi", Revue d'histoire ecclesiastique, vol. 25, 1929, pp.5-32.

(4) Acts 17:34 mentions a 1st-century convert to Christianity named Dionysius the Areopagite. Some time after the 5th century, an unknown author composed various patristic works under this name; he is known to modern scholarship as pseudo-Dionysius.

(5) See Robert W. Thomson, The Armenian Version of the Works Attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite, Louvain, 1987, CSCO 488,489, Scriptores Armeniaci 17, 18.

(6) Levon Ter-Petrossian, The Role of the Syrians in the Culture of Cilician Armenia in the, 12th and 13th Centuries, Venice, 1989, p.86.

(7) "One is the incarnated nature of God."

(8) St Nerses Shnorhali, Enthanrakan Toukht ["Pontifical Letter"], Jerusalem, 1871, p.97; cf. pp.124-26, 246.

(9) See Sirarpie Der Nersessian, Armenia and the Byzantine Empire, Cambridge, Harvard UP, 1945, esp. her chapter on ecclesiastical relations.

(10) For a more detailed examination of this relationship see my article "L'Armenie oecumenique", in Claude Moutafian, ed., Le Royaume Armenien de Cilicie XIIe-XIV siecles, Paris, Centre national de recherches scientifiques, 1993, pp.148-51.

(11) A single volume summary was also published as Outlines of the History of Dogma.

(12) For details see Sabine Stepan, Karapet Episkopos Ter-Mkrtchian, Halle, 1983.

(13) See the monthly review of the Catholicate of Cilicia, Hask, Antelias, Lebanon, June 1952.

(14) Karapet Ter-Mkrtchian, The Essence of Christianity, Antelias, 1993, p.28.

Karekin I, catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church (Etchmiadzin), was vice-moderator of the WCC central committee from 1975 to 1983. This essay is taken from an anthology of his writings entitled And the Boat Moves on the Waters, published by St Vartan Press, New York, to whom we are grateful for permission to print it here. It is adapted from an address given by the catholicos at the University of Halle-Wittenberg, Germany. Readers wishing information on ordering copies of the book should contact the St Vartan Bookstore, 630 Second Avenue, New York NY 10016, USA (telefax 1-212-686-0245).