This past Sunday, St. Sarkis Church held a special requiem service for its benefactors and devoted departed members. We especially remembered Mr. and Mrs. Hovsep and Suzanne Hagopian. Mrs. Suzanne Hagopian left an incredible legacy to the youth of our church by securing their spiritual home. She entrusted her wealth to our church and secured our parish’s future. Our Saturday language school is rightly named after her and her husband.
This past Sunday was also Family Badarak Day. It’s a day where we encourage families to come together to worship. We encourage all auxiliaries and sister organizations to join in the celebration of the Divine Liturgy. During church service we had the older members of our Saturday School read the scripture passages and assist the ushers in their duties.
After church service, those in attendance enjoyed a plentiful fellowship and an educational lecture. We had the fortune of having Mr. Stephan Tchorbajian as our speaker and the topic was Krapar. Krapar is the oldest form of the Armenian language, and it is the liturgical language of the Armenian Apostolic Church. It was first written down around 405 AD after Mesrob Masdotz invented the Armenian alphabet. It is a “dead” language in daily use, but it is actively heard in hymns and prayers. Stephan read and translated a few old stories for us. They had to be translated because certain words had different endings. After Stephan explained the word breakdown and/or took off a letter or two, then the word became a familiar word to us. It was very interesting. We have had the privilege of learning from Stephan for the second time this year. As Der Nareg thanked him and concluded the afternoon, he also hoped he would return for a third lecture in the near future. A wonderful afternoon was had by all.