Armenian Apostolic Church

The Armenian Apostolic Church is the national church of the Armenians. It belongs to the Oriental Orthodox family of churches.¹ Armenia was the first nation to adopt Christianity as its state religion, in 301 under King Tiridates III, and the Church traces its origin to the apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew and to Gregory the Illuminator, its first Catholicos.¹² The story is told in the entry on the Conversion of Armenia to Christianity.

Faith and communion

The Church accepts the decisions of the councils of Nicaea (325), Constantinople (381) and Ephesus (431), and is in communion with the other Oriental Orthodox churches, among them the Coptic, Ethiopian and Malankara churches.² It takes part in the World Council of Churches and has held theological dialogues with the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Protestant churches.¹

Structure

The Church’s head is the Catholicos of All Armenians, the spiritual leader of Armenians in Armenia and the diaspora. He is elected for life by the National Ecclesiastical Assembly and consecrated by twelve bishops in the cathedral at Etchmiadzin, which is the Church’s spiritual and administrative center.² Alongside Etchmiadzin stand the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia, based at Antelias in Lebanon, and the Armenian Patriarchates of Jerusalem and Constantinople.²