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'Armenian Pope' Blesses Church

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By NICOLA M. WHITE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 15, 2007

PINELLAS PARK - One Sunday morning many months ago, Linda Tossoonian stood in a raw building foundation, praising the Lord.

She was full of hope. After years of meeting in other churches and raising money, her small Armenian Catholic parish's effort to build its own worship site was finally under way.

On Sunday morning, the newly constructed St. Hagop Armenian church finally opened with a special guest to consecrate the sanctuary.

His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians - a man parishioners describe as 'the Armenian pope' - blessed the church and its worshippers in an intricate, three-hour ceremony.

'I don't know how to put it into words,' said Tossoonian, born and raised in Tampa by Armenian parents. 'To me, this is the most meaningful day.'

Incense filled the air of the new church Sunday, as the choir chanted in Armenian and the pontiff, clad in red and gold embroidered vestments, uttered blessings and anointed the altar with holy oil.

Members of the congregation, many holding lighted candles in one hand and cameras in the other, bowed their heads for his blessing and craned their necks to watch as he and other clergy members climbed on stepladders to bless all 16 of the small crosses hanging on the walls.

About 250 families make up St. Hagop's, organized as a mission parish in 1985. Parishioners come from all over the Tampa Bay area, as St. Hagop's is the only Armenian Catholic church on Florida's west coast.

The foundation of all Armenian Catholic churches is shaped like a cross, and the altars always face east, toward Jerusalem, said the Rev. Hovnan Demerjian, the church's pastor.

The church, which is on 90th Avenue, off Belcher Road, is not yet complete. On Sunday, people sat on white folding chairs on a bare concrete floor. Outside, the grounds still need to be landscaped.

'For Armenians, like Greeks, the church is not only the center of faith and worship, but it's also a lot about maintaining heritage - language, customs, dance - all those kinds of things,' Demerjian said.

Armenians share a complicated, bitter history. Their country was ruled by the Ottoman Empire for centuries and then by the communist Soviets from 1920 to 1991, when Armenia declared its independence.

From 1915 to 1917, about 1.5 million Armenians died in what Armenians describe as a campaign of deportation and murder by the Turks. Some scholars describe it as the first holocaust of the 20th century, while Armenians have long labeled it genocide. Turkey has fiercely disputed the characterization, saying the deaths were the result of famine, disease and World War I.

Last week, after decades of lobbying from Armenian-Americans, the U.S. House of Representatives moved toward formally recognizing the killings as genocide.

The news was on the minds of many of St. Hagop's parishioners.

'It's total excitement,' said Vahak Sarkis of Holiday, whose father was taken prisoner by the Turks after World War I.

The often-troubled history of Armenia makes it all the more important to have someplace to gather and worship, he said.

Editor Jeff Scullin contributed to this article. Reporter Nicola M. White can be reached at (813) 779-4613 or nwhite1@tampatrib.com.

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