His Grace Bishop Haigazoun Najarian returned from the United States on Wednesday having participated in the Supreme Spiritual Council meeting under the presidency of His Holiness Karekin II, hosted at the headquarters of the US Eastern Diocese in New York City. This was the first time the body had met outside of Armenia.

On October 31 and November 1, His Holiness and the 17 members of the Council convened a joint meeting with the executive bodies of the Eastern, Western, and Canadian dioceses and the AGBU, under the theme, “Bringing the Church to the People: Reaching Out to the Armenians of North America”. The meeting examined the emerging realities within the Armenian-American community, and the prospects for expanding the church’s ministry. From 2-3 November, the Supreme Spiritual Council reconvened to address ongoing matters of governance and ministry in the worldwide Armenian Church.

A highlight of Bishop Najarian’s visit back to the U.S. was celebrating the Divine Liturgy at St Sahag & St Mesrob Church in Philadelphia after nine years, where he had once served as the parish pastor from 2002-2007.

In its mission to serve the faithful of our community, over the past months, the Chancellery of the Diocese has been negotiating with the Rookwood General Cemeteries Trust to expand the Armenian Lawn section of Rookwood Cemetery which has reached its capacity.

In this endeavour, we are pleased to announce the Diocese has been able to secure a new section adjacent to the old and a ground-blessing service will take place on Saturday 26 November at 12.00 p.m. with the participation of Armenian clergy from all the denominations. The ground-blessing is open to our community and will be followed by a reception.

On Friday, Bishop Najarian accompanied by Reverend Father Avetis Hambardzumyan will make a pastoral visit to the mission parish of Adelaide where they will meet with members of the small Armenian community. With recently arrived migrants from Syria, the visit aims to welcome the new families to the Diocese and reconnect those who are longer term residents.
The outreach missions of the Diocese extend throughout the pocket communities of Perth to Auckland and Wellington, New Zealand. Such pastoral visits by our Primate and the clergy expands the ministry of the Armenian Apostolic Church demonstrating their love, care and concern for the spiritual nourishment and guidance of our community faithful.
If you would like get involved with the Diocese by supporting the Outreach Ministry, please contact the Chancellery at diocese@armenian.com.au

These are exciting times for our Armenian Community and we are pleased to announce the commencement of the construction of the Diocesan Centre at 11 Chatswood Ave, Schenk Construction Group were the successful tenderer.
Schenk Construction Grup Pty Ltd is in the early stages of pre-construction and is well advanced in satisfying authority approvals. Authority approval and Site Establishment should be completed by mid-November which will allow works to commence and we expect that concrete foundations and inground services will be well advanced by the end of the year.
The target date for completion is December 2017.