The Catholicosate of Cilicia, with the combined efforts of the Christian Education Department and the Armenian Theological Seminary, is holding its Summer Youth Academy for the second year, in Antelias. Armenian youth coming from the USA and Canada will spend two weeks at the Catholcosate to participate in an intensive program of the Bible, history of the Armenian Church, ecumenical relations, Christian-Muslim dialogue, as well as contemporary moral and ethical issues, among others.

The opening session was held on Monday morning, August 5^th, 2019, in the presence of His Holiness Aram I, who also delivered the first lecture of the program.

After the welcoming remarks by Rev. Fr. Zareh Sarkissian, His Holiness greeted the students and stated that the Catholicosate of Cilicia is their home not only for the coming two weeks, but also it has been and still is a home for the Armenian Diaspora everywhere. Consequently, he underlined that for Christianity families are sacred, and similarly, our Church is our sacred family. The Catholicos continued his lecture reminding the youth that throughout the history, there has been a total identification between the Armenian church and the Armenian people; hence, our Church is the people’s church.

In the second part of his lecture, His Holiness briefed the program and called upon the participants to use the knowledge they acquire during the following weeks in the renewal, revitalization and reorganization of their church and community lives, and stated stated that knowledge cannot be self-centered but should generate action, and  leads to responsibility and participation in the society.  

The lecture was followed by a Q&A session.

The students had the opportunity to continue the discussion during lunch which they had with His Holiness.

Note that the day commenced with a tour of the Catholicosate.