The Gala Banquet of the 124th Diocesan Assembly will be held in Milwaukee on Friday, May 1: an uplifting evening of heartfelt tributes, with our Primate, Bishop Mesrop Parsamyan, presiding over the event.
The Gala will cap the day in which the Hoan Bridge (pictured here), spanning Milwaukee harbor and linking the city’s north and south sides, will be lit in the colors of the Armenian flag.
The host parish, St. John the Baptist Church of Greenfield, Wis., organized the Clergy Conference, Assembly and the Gala in the elegant setting of Milwaukee’s historic Pfister Hotel. The hotel’s grand ballroom is a graceful, refined stage on which to honor church leaders for their contributions to the life of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America. This will be the first time a Diocesan Assembly was held in Wisconsin.
At the Gala, the “Friend of the Armenian Church” award will be presented to Dr. Robin Darling Young. She is professor emerita of Church History at the Catholic University of America. She has also taught at the University of Notre Dame and Wesley Theological Seminary, focused on the history of early Christianity, primarily in Greek-, Armenian- and Syriac-speaking regions, and is member of the Vatican’s International Theological Commission and the Oriental Orthodox-Roman Catholic Dialogues.
Two Milwaukeeans, Ara Cherchian and John Kashian, will also be honored as “Armenian Church Members of the Year” for their contributions to St. John, a parish that has flourished for 85 years.
Alexandra and Lilia Yaralian will bring Armenian music and heritage to the Gala through their performances on qanun, a stringed instrument with roots as far back as ancient Assyria.
Find detailed information on banquet reservations and the schedule of events on the host parish’s website, by clicking here.
About Milwaukee Armenians
Armenians began to arrive in Milwaukee in the 1890s in response to Ottoman persecution, and their numbers increased with the Genocide. They came to Milwaukee when the city was a center of industry, offering many employment opportunities for newly arrived immigrants.
In recent decades, Armenians from Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Armenia and elsewhere from the former Soviet Union as well as converts have joined Milwaukee’s Armenian community. Among other cultural activities, St. John organizes the annual Milwaukee Armenian Fest, an event that has raised the profile of Armenians in the region.
By David Luhrssen