BURBANK, Calif. — Tekeyan Cultural Association’s Los Angeles Chapter organized a tribute honoring Rev. Dr. Zaven Arzoumanian’s 60 years of service to the Armenian Church. It was held under the auspices of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church, with the Primate, Archbishop Hovnan Derderian presiding. It took place at the Zorayan Hall of St. Leon Cathedral here on Sunday, June 26.
A cross section of the prominent figures of the Armenian community of the Greater Los Angeles had filled the hall to capacity. Among the attendees were the former Primate of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church Archbishop Vatche Hovsepian, Primate of the Armenian Church in Iraq Archbishop Avak Asadourian, eight members of Tekeyan Cultural Association’s Board of Directors of the United States and Canada, parish priests and church members who had known and worked with the honoree.
Tekeyan Cultural Association’s chairman of the Los Angeles Chapter, Vatche Semerdjian, made the opening remarks. He portrayed the honoree as a prolific writer, who had written 11 books in the last 30 years. Most significant among these books were the last three, which were the continuation of Arcbishop Maghakia Ormanian’s famous tri-volume publication of the Armenian Church History, Azkabadoum. Semerdjian then passed the baton to the Master of Ceremonies, Hratch Sepetjian, to proceed with the program.
Sepetjian invited one by one the following clergymen and laypeople to deliver their remarks about Arzoumanian, the inquisitive person, the beloved parish priest and the erudite historian of the Armenian Church: Very Rev. Baret Yeretsian, Edmond Yervant Azadian, Archbishop Yeprem Tabakian, Dr. Haroutune Arzoumanian and Derderian.
Tabakian had the difficult task of presenting Arzoumanian’s 11 publications, which had immensely enriched the bibliography of the Armenian Church. Two of those publications, noted Tabakian, were written in English about the rituals and sacraments of the Armenian Church, thus making the non-Armenian speaking parishioners understand and grasp the essence of the first Christian nation in the world.
The last three publications, continued Tabakian, were the all important extension of Ormanian’s tri-volume publication of the history of the Armenian Church, from its inception until 1909. Arzoumanian’s three-volume publication covered the church history from 1910 until 1995 and its last volume was dedicated to Catholicos of all the Armenians Vazken the first of blessed memory.