Armenian Protestants

[Pilafhead]

Window Quarterly

Vol. 2, No. 3, 1991

Copyright 1991

 

[Permission is granted to use, print, reproduce this article

provided the following acknowledgment is given: From

Window Quarterly 2, 3 (1991); ACRAG c. 1991.

 

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THE ARMENIAN PROTESTANTS

A Brief History

 

Compiled by Hratch Tchilingirian

 

The beginnings of the Armenian Protestant church dates back

to the early nineteenth century. As a movement, it was

"imported" and "implanted" by American and European

missionaries, amidst the "intellectual renaissance" that was

taking place in the Armenian community within the

boundaries of the Ottoman Empire. Tracing the roots of

Armenian Protestantism is not as easy as it may seem. The

authors who have written about the subject, while they agree

on dates and personalities, are divided over the reasons,

rationale and effects of the events that lead to the

establishment of a separate Armenian Protestant

denomination. Among the books that were consulted for this

article were Leon Arpee's A Century of Armenian

Protestantism; G.H. Chopourian's The Armenian Evangelical

Reformation: Causes and Effects, and Vahan H. Tootikian's

The Armenian Evangelical Church (see sources below). The

purpose of this article is to give a historical account of events

rather than an analysis of the movement.

 

The First Reformers

 

The first Protestant missionaries that were sent to the Turkish

empire were from the Church Missionary Society of the

Church of England in 1815 and in 1818, the American Board

of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. In 1827, the Syrian

Mission (established in 1823 by the American Board), led by

two ministers, received two Armenian helpers. Among the

first missionaries was William Goodell who arrived in

Constantinople in 1831 and founded the Mission of the

American Board for the Armenians of Turkey. In 1833, John

Der-Sahakian and his companion, Paul Minassian joined the

mission. Within a year, Der-Sahakian was appointed general

superintendent of the Mission's high school in Pera.

However, in 1837, the school was forced to close due to

pressures from the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople.

Despite the opposition of the Armenian Patriarchate, the

evangelical movement made considerable headway with a

following of about 500 people.

 

The "mission" of the Protestant ministers caused a great deal

of uproar in the Armenian community. The Mother Church,

headed by the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople,

protested the activities of the missionaries among the

Armenians. Eventually, the confrontation lead to a formal

anathema of Protestants by the Patriarch and even

persecutions by the Ottoman government authorities. Here is

an excerpt from a report sent by a missionary to the

American Board, which gives a glimpse of events of the

time:

 

"In order that misunderstanding may be cleared up, it should

be stated here that missionaries to the Armenians and Greeks

were not sent to divide the churches or to separate out those

who should accept education and read the Bible in the

vernacular. Their one supreme endeavor was to help the

Armenians and the Greeks work out a quiet but genuine

reform in their respective churches. The missionaries made

no attacks upon churches, their customs, or beliefs, but

strove by positive, quiet effort to show the necessary

changes.

 

. . . When the separation did come, it was in spite of every

effort of the missionaries to prevent it." 1

 

The missionaries were critical of the Armenian Church and

viewed its practices as "corrupt." Here is how Goodell

describes the Armenian Church:

 

. . . like all the Oriental churches, the Armenian had become

exceedingly corrupt. It was almost wholly given up to

superstition and to idolatrous worship of saints, including the

Virgin Mary, pictures, etc. The Armenians hold to

transubstantiation, and worship the host; and, indeed have

adopted most of the errors of popery... As with all rigid

formalities, the weightier matters of the law and the gospel

are considered of small account compared with the

punctilious performance of religious rites and ceremonies.2

 

While the "supreme endeavor" of the Protestants "was to help

the Armenians...work out a quiet but genuine reform in their

respective churches," their eventual mission was

characterized by an attack on the established "Mother

Church." These confrontations lead to a wide persecution of

Protestants. Thus, in an attempt to survive the opposition in

Turkey to their missionary work, the missionaries secured

temporary shelter and amenities were obtained from

contributions received from Protestant sympathizers in

England, America, India and the Caucuses, Denmark,

Sweden, Norway, Wurttemberg and Switzerland.

Meanwhile, in mid February 1846, the evangelicals sent a

petition to the minister of foreign affairs begging for

protection of the imperial government. They refuted all

charges of civil rebellion and stated that the reason for their

persecution was due to their refusal to conform to the

practices of the national church such as the worship of

images and priestly absolution. The following month they

submitted a petition to the British, Prussian and American

diplomatic representatives and finally one to the Sultan

himself. On March 12, 1846, the minister of foreign affairs

spoke with the Armenian Patriarch, Matthew, who, after

extensive negotiations, declared from the pulpit of the

cathedral church, that "Religion is free in Turkey!" On May

17, 1846 the evangelicals were authorized to resume their

"normal" life and obtain credit as Protestants. Thus ended

the civil persecution of the Protestants.

 

Organization of Protestant Churches

 

On June 21, 1846, on the occasion of the feast of

Etchmiadzin, Patriarch Matthew issued an encyclical of

perpetual excommunication and anathema against all

Protestants to be publicly read at every annual return of the

festival throughout the churches. Thus, "the reformers,"

originally a party within the church, excluded from the

church's fellowship and ordinances, formed a rival

organization outside the church, i.e. the Protestant church.

On June 25, 1846, a constitution was drawn up for the

Armenian Evangelical Church about to be organized. This

constitution provided for a form of government half-way

between Congregationalism and Presbyterianism. The

doctrine of the church was embodied in a confession of faith

composed of 12 articles to which all candidates for church

membership were to express publicly.

 

On July 1, 1846 the constitution was formally adopted by the

evangelicals of Constantinople and the First Armenian

Evangelical Church of Constantinople (with a total of 40

members) began. During the months of July and August,

three more evangelical churches were organized on the basis

of the above described constitution; Nicomedia and

Adabazar with 14 members each and Trebizond with nine

members. At the end of a year, the infant church of

Constantinople had more than doubled its membership and

the aggregate membership of the four churches was about

140. After the consummation of the ecclesiastical

organization, the civil recognition by the Turkish government

was made the important object of endeavor by the

evangelicals.

 

On August 17, 1846 a meeting of the "Protestant Nation"

(milet) was called at Constantinople and an executive

committee of four was appointed to represent the community

in its external relations. On June 16, 1846, this committee

submitted a petition to the local governor requesting

separation from the Armenian community and the granting of

a charter. Four petitions were sent to the Sultan in the space

of a few months. However, through the petition of the

British embassy, and the efforts of Lord Cowley and later

Stratford de Redcliffe, the first imperial acknowledgement

was issued on November 15, 1847, recognizing the

Protestants of Turkey as a separate community and granting

them freedom of conscience and worship. But it was not

until 1850, again through the efforts of Lord Stratford, that

the rights and privileges of the Protestant community were

permanently defined by imperial firman (edict) and the

Protestants were authorized to elect a chancellor or civil

head.

 

On December 13, 1850, at a popular meeting of the

Protestant community in Constantinople, this was

publicly read and Stephen Seropian was elected civil head of

the community. As of the beginning of 1850, the expansion

of Armenian Protestants was not great in scope; there were

only 7 mission stations in the Armenian field:

Constantinople, Bebek, Brusa, Smyrna, Trebizond, Erzrum,

and Aintab; 6 outstations: Nicomedia, Adabazar, Rodosto,

Diarbekir, Urfa, and Cesarea; 18 missionaries and 20 female

assistants; 8 churches with 2 of them in Constantinople, with

an aggregate membership of about 240. However, by the end

of 1850, with the promulgation of the imperial firman, the

whole country was opened up to missionary operation. It

awakened a general readiness everywhere to listen to the

preaching of the Protestants.

 

About 100 towns and villages around Aintab, Marash, Urfa,

Diarbekir, Arabgir, Agn, Silvas, Cesarea, Tocat, and

Marsovan began to show "signs of an awakening," and from

remote localities "came requests to the missionaries for

preachers of the gospel." By the end of 1860, the field had

become so extensive that it necessitated its subdivision into

three separate missions; the Western Turkey Mission

(including what was afterward the European Turkey

Mission), the Central Turkey Mission and the Eastern Turkey

Mission. Combined, there were 23 mission stations; 65

outstations; 50 missionaries and 50 female assistants; 40

evangelical churches, with a total membership of nearly

1,300 people.

 

The Rationale for a Protestant Armenian Church

 

According to the scholars who have written about the

Protestant movement in Turkey, the missions of the

American Board to the oriental churches, more specifically

the missions of the Armenian church, were originally

committed to a policy of strict non-proselytism (non

conversion from one belief to another). Accordingly, this

policy had as its sole aim the instillation into those churches

evangelical ideas--without alienating any of the members

from them. In their pursuit, "the American missionaries in

Constantinople at first avoided all controversy and based

their efforts on what the oriental churches needed above all

else an enlightenment to arouse a widespread interest in the

Word of God." However, in the 15 years from the founding

of the Armenian mission, the missionaries of the American

Board in Turkey "felt compelled" to establish an independent

evangelical church, contrary to the original plan.

 

L. Arpee enumerates four reasons which led the missionaries

to establish a Protestant church in Turkey prior to 1846 and

to regard a strict adherence to their original policy of non-

proselytisms as impracticable.

 

1) Pressure from the home churches for tangible results.

 

2) Intolerance of the oriental churches.

 

3) Antagonism between oriental orthodoxy and the

missionaries doctrines and methods.

Arpee writes, The Armenian church, although it

theoretically held to the Scriptures as the supreme authority,

had given place to a great mass of patristic interpretations

and ceremonial rituals with the result that the Word of God

had been all but lost in the traditions of man." On the other

hand, the missionaries' ideas and methods of ultra-

evangelism were far to radical for the oriental churches and

sooner or later would invite opposition. Therefore, long

before they were excommunicated by Patriarchal anathema,

the evangelical Armenians found themselves seceding.

 

4) The official recognition of the treaty rights of American

missionaries in Turkey by the U.S. government in 1842. The

U.S. government pointed out to the Turkish empire that the

American missionaries in Turkey were entitled by treaty to

the protection of the U.S. government as long as they

refrained from proselyting. Since no distinction could be

drawn from proselyting and non-proselyting missionaries, it

was now understood that if a missionary had any right to

reside in the Turkish dominions at all, he was also entitled as

a citizen of the U.S. to the protection of his government.

 

By 1914, on the eve of the first World War, Protestants had

15 stations in Turkey, 146 missionaries, 137 churches and

13,891 communicant members. The most notable single

evangelical influence on the Armenians of Turkey came from

the combined efforts of the American Board and the

American Bible Society in disseminating the scriptures into

the people's vernacular, (i.e. Goodell's Bible for Turkish

speaking Armenians, published in 1842 and Elias Riggs'

modern Armenian Bible, published in 1853).

 

By 1890's, the relationship between the Apostolic and

Protestant Armenian churches was cordial enough to permit

the collaboration on a modern Armenian New Testament,

which was published under the Armenian Patriarch's

imprimatur to provide free circulation among the Armenians.

 

Eventually, the massacres of Armenians in Turkey, (1895-

1908) drained not only the Protestant Armenians of their

leaders, but the entire Armenian nation. The 1915

deportations and massacres swept the Armenian evangelical

churches out of Asia minor. The American Board liquidated

its hundred-years interest in Turkey and withdrew from the

field. However, as Armenians scattered throughout the

world, so did Armenian Protestant congregations, which can

be found in large Armenian communities in the Diaspora.

 

With the emergence of an Armenian Protestant church, in the

19th century, a rapture was created between the Armenian

Apostolic Church and those who followed the missionaries.

What were predicted as "dangerous trends" by Patriarch

Matthew of the time -- which eventually gave permanence to

the separation between the Armenian evangelicals and the

Mother Church-- are summarized by V.H. Tootikian in these

terms: a) "the Armenian Evangelical Church failed in her

original goal to reform the Armenian Apostolic Church,"

It "failed to keep the balance between the Armenian-

Christian and Protestant-Evangelical heritages," c) "The

Armenian Evangelical Church weakened the solidarity of the

Armenian people," d) It "withdrew into isolation," and e)

"The Armenian Evangelical Church gradually became

complacent."3 However, Tootikian adds, that " when every

criticism has been made, and every allowance recorded for

the imperfection of the Armenian Evangelical Church, the

fact remains that she worked her way into many corners of

the life of the Armenian Nation. Obvious faults and

weaknesses must not hide the deeper significance of the

Evangelical Movement, because measured by its effects, it

proved itself a potent force among the Armenian people."

 

-researched by Jeannie Murachanian

 

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Notes

1. James L. Barton, Daybreak in Turkey (Boston: The

Pilgrim Press, 1908), pp. 108-109. Cited in The Armenian

Evangelical Reformation: Causes and Effects by G.H.

Chopourian (New York: AMAA, 1972) pp.1-2.

2. Quoted in Chopourian, op. cit. pp. 26-27.

3. Vahan H. Tootikian. The Armenian Evangelical Church.

(Detroit: Armenian Heritage Committee, 1982). pp. 85-93.

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Sources for further reading:

 

The Church of Armenia by Malachi Ormanian, Diocese of

the Armenian Church, New York.

 

A Century of Armenian Protestantism by Leon Arpee. New

York: Armenian Missionary Association of America, Inc.,

1946.

 

The Armenian Awakening by Leon Arpee. Chicago: The

University of Chicago Press, 1909.

 

The Rise of the Evangelical Movement Among Armenians

by A.A. Bedikian (English Translation of the Beginning of

the Evangelical Movement Among Armenians.) New York:

Armenian Missionary Association of America, Inc., 1970.

 

The Armenian Evangelical Reformation Causes and Effects

by G.H. Chopourian New York: Armenian Missionary

Association of America, Inc., 1972.

 

The Armenian Evangelical Church by Vahan H. Tootikian,

Detroit, MI: Armenian Heritage Committee, 1982.

 

The Separation of the Armenian Catholic and Evangelical

Denominations in the 19th Century by Puzant Yeghiayan.

Antelias: The Armenian Catholicosate of the See of Cilicia,

1971.

 

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View Of The Armenian Church

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