Pashinyan slams Armenian Church for lacking statute or canon

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has criticised the Armenian Apostolic Church for failing to adopt a formal statute or canon, more than a decade after a proposed reform roadmap was first outlined.

Speaking to local media, Pashinyan said the second point of his proposed roadmap for updating the church, following the removal of Ktrich Nersisyan (Catholicos Garegin II), focuses on the adoption of the church’s canonical regulations, Caliber.Az reports.

“The agenda has effectively been officially noted by the Catholicos himself,” he said.

Pashinyan recalled that in November 2011, the Armenian Ministry of Justice registered the Statute of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church, which stated that a statute establishing the church’s hierarchical structure would be developed “in the near future.”

“Twelve years after Ktrich Nersisyan became Catholicos, there is still neither a statute nor a comprehensive canon, despite promises that it would be adopted shortly after 2011. Another fourteen years have now passed,” he added.

According to Pashinyan, this situation reflects the actual state of the Armenian Apostolic Church under Nersisyan’s leadership. He suggested that the absence of a clear canon was intentionally maintained, creating a “non-canonical state” and a lack of understanding regarding the church’s governing principles.

By Aghakazim Guliyev