Armenian Orthodox – Christmas Liturgy

Armenian Orthodox – Christmas Liturgy

Report by Verena E. Kozmann

On January the 6^th, 2010 I had the possibility to attend the Christmas service of the Armenian church in Nor Hajn, Beirut. My access to the church was obtained by the help of my colleague, Sevan Palanjian, who participated that day as a deacon in the service. The church seemed well refurbished, with white as its main colour.

What caught my attention first was the open steeple with its six corners and the special “three-dimensional” metal cross on the top of the church’s building. To enter the building of the church, you have to cross a yard then walk up some stairs while surrounded by walls carrying big pictures of Saint George. As you enter the church, you see that it is more straddle legged than

Figure no. 1: “Eglise St. George, in Nor Hajn”[1] longish. The priest explained to us later

this is because the head of the altar is directed toward the east, from where the sunrises.

The church has stained windows, but without any specific image, and the altar is divided into four levels: The first level is the pews’ rows, which was nearly empty when Sevan, two other colleagues and I arrived around eight o’clock in the morning. The exception was two ladies, who were sitting on one of the front-rows. The second level is a platform, which is separated from the remaining levels by means of stairs in the middle, on the left and on the right sides, along with a low balustrade in-between the stairs. Then, you stand in front of three altars. level number three is the main altar, which is detached by four stairs from the other levels. while level number four is the area behind the main altar, where there is a narrow back-passage that might be used as the route to the place where they leave some unused stuff. All the levels were used during the service.

Figure no.2: On the opposite of the church

entrance were two soldiers, who protected the

church and their guests.

After entering the church, I took a look around, lit a candle before a picture of the Virgin Mary and found myself a central seat. In few minutes, the church’s bells were ringing and the prayers started. I could not understand what they were saying in Armenian. What I was able to see, however, is that there were four men singing/citing out of books in turns. For me, it sounded like a mixture of males’ choir and prayer.

There were two men with red garments. One man with beige garment and the priest, who changed his garments in-between, wearing first white gown and later on a violet one. (Later on, after about one and a half hours, a teenager and a young boy, both in special costumes, came to participate in the service.[2])

All of these gowns had the sign of the cross on them, especially big-size crosses on the back side. The men with the red gowns had on the left shoulder a dark-green scarf, made out of velvet. None of the celebrants was wearing shoes. They only wore socks or special slippers. Maybe this was the reason for having thick carpets on the floor              of the altar, which was made of marble.

Figure no.3: The priest and the decans preparing the Christmas-Liturgy

The four celebrants sang in rotation standing at different locations in the church. Most of the time, this singing took place at the front of the church, where two of the singers stood on the right side, while one or two stood on the other side or in the aisle. They used much incense, spreading it around every side of the compass. Sometimes, they also went around fumigating the incense all over the church. After about one and a half hour, there was a little break. The bells were ringing, flowers were brought forth, and a little boy with another lad lit the candles.

It was about 9.30 am when people started to enter the church. They all got a sticker of St. Georges’ image to paste it on the top of their dresses. I realized that every object related to the service was touched and carried by a white textile and not touched by naked skin.

The bells rang for a second time after 30 minutes. Then suddenly the celebrants stopped singing/citing. Every latter arrangement was done in silence. It was interesting to see that the priest also wore a microphone to amplify his voice via loud-speaker placed outside the church, where two army soldiers secured the church’s entrance.

The next thing I was able to see is the shutting-down of the red curtain with a picture of St. George, the beginning of pipe-organ playing and the singing of a single woman during the following part of the service. The church meanwhile was getting fuller and fuller with people. Most of the attendants were elderly people. Yet, there were also, probably due to the special occasion, young couples with their little children and housemaids. During that part, the audience could not see anything of the re-enactment of the birth of Christ, for the ritual of that part was conducted behind the closed curtain. Then the curtain was reopened, a big metal cross was raised high and the priest made a procession anti-clock-wise around the church. During the following part of the service, the Bible was raised up, while lots of singing/citing, swinging the fumigator and clattering of a metal sun on a wooden stick took place. The music of the organ sounds mystic and promising.

In the third part the „body of Christ“- bread is carried in a circle through the church and then they put it behind the main altar.  The priest washed his hands while people were whishing peace to each other. There were now two members holding a long stick with a sun-like shape and shaking it in a way that makes a specific voice. They were positioned at the left and the right sides of

Figure no. 3: part one, signed by the closed curtain

the altar. Suddenly, there was a stronger light casted on the sitting. it gave a sense of an act of a special proclamation accompanied with a soft melody.

Then the little table with the Babtism’s basin was prepared, the white textile was put away, and a cross was placed inside the basin. (I would later realize that there was water inside).This Basin is made of silver and it is massive in size and weight. It needed two men to carry it away later. The cross was taken wet out of the basin, which was filled with water earlier, and it was taken back to the side-altar.

The priest stood alone by the baptism’s basin before the congregation, talking with a cross in his hand. Every now and then, the priest would speak in a loud voice. By now, the Baptism`s basin was moved aside and some of the assistants started to pour the baptismal water into plastic bottles and cups, while the other  assistants were kneeling down and reciting what could be a list of names. Afterwards, the congregation started to partake the Holy Communion. The partaking started with the priest first, followed by the assistants second, then finally the other worshipers, the women amongst whom covered their head.

Figure no. 4: women are partaking the holy communion        Figure no.5: an assistant pours the baptismal water

After the last partaker received the bread, the curtain was closed again. Now, people started to leave the church while the concluding hymn was on. The curtain then reopened and the Bible was carried out by the priest who was reading from it, while the incense was fumigated. And, some people walked back to the front in order to kiss the book. By that time, the church’s bells were ringing and the teenager-assistant, in his casual clothes and shoes, was tidying the altar. This was the end of the liturgy.

This mass was maybe the longest I have ever attended. It started at 8 am and ended at 12 am. The whole mass was like a performance sitting in terms of the voices, the featuring elements, the lighting and the music. They used all kinds of elements to create a special performative, worshiping atmosphere. I was not able to understand a single word of the Armenian language, but figure no. 6:  After the mass we were invited to visit the

priest’s office.

my eyes were able to follow the story of Christmas as it was enacted in the service.

After the service, we were invited to meet the priest, who offered us food and drink. He gave us few small, hand-size loaves of bread with the sign of the cross and the face of Christ stamped upon. It was very kind of him to spend some extra time with us, responding to our questions and showing us the church. It caught my attention that the Armenian community in Lebanon is big, integrated to the Lebanese society and freely practices its own faith in it.

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[1] All pictures are taken by Thomas Schönberger.

[2] As I have heard later, there are ten responsibilities in the services of the Armenian church. These responsibilities are: 1)The student who is responsible for secretarial work; 2)the cleaner of the church; 3) someone responsible of the candles; 4.) someone responsible of the church’s keys; 5) the half-deacon, who is responsible of taking care of the wine and pass it to the deacon, who is allowed to dress the priest 6)  a deacon, who is a direct assistant of the priest; 7) two kind of priests: a married priest, who cannot get higher in the church-hierarchy; and a celebate, monk-like priest, who can proceed higher on the hierachical scale; 8.) the teacher; 9) the bishop; 10) the Katholicos.