Defrocked priest challenges church authority, invites Pashinyan to attend his mass
Father Aram Asatryan, a priest at the Hovhannavank Monastery, has been defrocked by the Armenian Apostolic Church following weeks of escalating tensions between the clergy and the state.
According to a statement from the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Catholicos Garegin II signed the decree after receiving a report from Bishop Mkrtich Proshyan, the head of the Aragatsotn Diocese, and a conclusion from the church’s disciplinary committee.
The statement accused Asatryan of ‘discrediting the Armenian Church, the diocesan leader, and his fellow clergymen through public statements,’ and of ‘persistently violating ecclesiastical order.’
The committee also cited Asatryan’s alleged refusal to commemorate the names of the Catholicos and the diocesan bishop during mass, calling it ‘a gesture that effectively placed him outside the church.’ It said that by ignoring repeated summons from the committee and defying church authority, Asatryan had broken his oath of obedience.
Asatryan will now be classified as a layman under the name Stepan Asatryan.
The defrocked priest, however, rejected the accusations, claiming that the decision was politically motivated and timed to coincide with his public criticism of senior clergy. ‘This morning I submitted a letter to the disciplinary committee expressing my willingness to meet with them. Instead, within hours, they published their decision’, he wrote on Facebook. ‘If only they responded as quickly to questions about why the committee ignored the Catholicos’s own problematic conduct for two years’.
The move sparked sharp political reactions in Yerevan. Deputy Parliament Speaker Ruben Rubinyan condemned what he called ‘another anti-church act by Ktrich Nersisyan’, referring to one of Etchmiadzin’s senior clerics. ‘Defrocking Father Aram is unjustified and part of Nersisyan’s unlawful pressure campaign. He should be the one removed from office’, Rubinyan said.
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In a surprising twist, Father Aram announced that he would still celebrate mass at Hovhannavank on Sunday, inviting parishioners and even Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who later said he planned to attend.
The defrocking of Asatryan comes amid an intensifying confrontation between the Armenian Apostolic Church and the government. It follows the recent arrest of Bishop Mkrtich Proshyan and several priests in Aragatsotn, as well as allegations that clergy were coerced to participate in political rallies in 2021 — claims that triggered the latest wave of church-state tension.
Ani Ghevondyan
