Azad-Hye
Internet has been an important element in our life. Clergymen of the Armenian Apostolic Church cannot afford to remain far from using its benefits.
Few years ago there were only 20-30 websites related to the Armenian Apostolic faith, but today the numbers are several hundred. It is difficult to prepare a complete list of them.
Clergymen are using blogs to post Christian teaching and develop contacts with followers.
Father Markos Mangasaryan updates his blog with articles, sermons, comments, translations from international sources, analysis, etc. He says that his work in the Catholicosate of Etchmiadzin does not allow him to get into frequent contact with people, but since he has inner urge to pass the message of the Gospel to the public, he depends much on his blog to achieve that. He focuses not only on those who are loyal followers, but also those who have superficial knowledge about the church and therefore need more attention. In doing so he follows the teachings of Christ who went after the lost lamb leaving the flock. “That lost lamb may not be important, but finding it is important. The internet gives this opportunity”, he comments.
Father Mangasaryan is happy with the number of the followers of his blog and the quality of comments and feedbacks he receives. Some of the followers have found his blog quite accidentally, when looking for other material on the net. He posts material that help parents in providing religious education and guidance to their children. He writes also about topics of historical interest, such as the manuscripts in the Sinai Peninsula. He always tries to introduce religious topics in an attractive form.
Another blogger priest is Father Housik Sargsyan whose blog has 300 visitors daily. He tries to develop religious subjects using input from social media such as Facebook. “The readers define the subjects that appear on my blog. I pick up a thread and develop my topics, according to their preferences”.
The clergymen who use internet count on the readers to share the posted material with others.
Clergymen on the net:
http://notatetr.blogspot.com (Father Markos Mankasaryan)
http://sarkavag.blogspot.com (Father Housik Sargsyan)
http:///www.dermyron.com/ (Father Myron Sarkissian)
http://ter-hambardzum.do.am/ (Father Hambardzum)
http://kantegh.wordpress.com/ (Deacon Seyran)
Report by the Catholicosate of Etchmiadzin about websites and blogs by Armenian clergymen (Report by Sousanna Petrosyan. Operator: Hayk Barseghyan. 05.06 minutes)
