Pilgrims visiting the holiest site in Christendom, Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre, found its doors shuttered this week, in a protest against proposed legislation that would enable the government of Israel to tax and even confiscate properties owned by the city’s Christian churches.
On January 19-20, Diocesan Legate and Ecumenical Director Archbishop Vicken Aykazian joined leaders of America’s Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches, along with their Roman Catholic, Evangelical, and other religious counterparts, for the 45th annual “March for Life” in Washington, DC.
On December 6, Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, the Diocesan Legate and Ecumenical Director, took part in a special panel on “Sacred Sites and Property Rights” during the third international Conference on Religious Freedom.
Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, Diocesan Legate and Ecumenical Director, led the delegation from the Eastern Diocese at the annual assembly of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. The NCC’s “Christian Unity Gathering” convened November 8-10 in Silver Spring, MD.
On Wednesday, March 1, Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Primate of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern), hosted an ecumenical luncheon at the Diocesan Center honoring the leader of the Syriac Orthodox Church: His Holiness Ignatius Aphrem II, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East.
