The Aragatsotn Diocese has condemned a religious ceremony held on November 1 at St. Gevorg Church in Garnahovit, a village in the Talin region. The service was conducted by defrocked former clergyman Armen Arakelyan, previously known as Father Koryun.
The diocese stated that a “Divine Liturgy” celebrated by a defrocked individual cannot be regarded as a canonical church service.
“The individual in question was once the leader of the notorious ‘New Armenia, New Patriarch’ movement. The Church is not a place for pursuing personal ambitions, making arbitrary decisions or acting according to one’s own wishes.
A clergyman who has been defrocked loses the ecclesiastical right to perform priestly duties and exercise priestly privileges.
A ‘Divine Liturgy’ celebrated by a defrocked individual cannot be considered a canonical Divine Liturgy performed by the Church. Such an action not only violates church order but also misleads believers, infringing upon and disrupting their religious and spiritual lives.
We demand that defrocked former clergymen refrain from actions that desecrate churches and violate the religious rights of the faithful.
We urge our spiritual children to exercise caution and refrain from participating in such unlawful and uncanonical events,” the statement said.
Separately, a report titled “On the crisis in the church resulting from the activities of the de facto head of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church and several senior clergymen, and ways to resolve it” has been published. According to the report, its preparation stems from the Armenian government’s 2026–2031 program and was undertaken on the instructions of the Prime Minister of Armenia. The report was prepared by the state noncommercial organization Public Relations and Information Center.
As a first step, the report proposes establishing a Reform Coordination Group comprising clergy and laypeople and publishing a procedure for expanding its membership. The second proposed step is the removal of the “de facto head” of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
