Page 193 - THE ARMENIAN CHURCH_Neat

194 The Armenian Church

menian Protestant Church, which prefers to
call itself the Armenian Evangelical Church,
still considers the Armenian Church as the
mother church.
The Armenian Catholic and Evangelical
churches emerged within the Armenian
nation as a result of the aggressive activities
of western missionaries. Supported by the
western powers and using humanitarian
assistance as a means and the necessity of
the reformation of the Armenian Church as
a pretext, some missionaries shook the in-
ternal unity of the Armenians by creating
tension and division among them. Instead of
reaching out to non-Christians, they chose as
their 'mission land' the first Christian nation
of the world. Other missionaries, however, as
I observed earlier, acted quite differently
before and after the Armenian Genocide.
The Armenian Catholic Church, with the
support of the Vatican, and the Armenian
Evangelical Church, with the assistance of
western mission agencies and churches,
founded schools and humanitarian centers in
Cilicia, then in the diaspora, and finally in
Armenia after the restoration of its indepen-
dence. Significantly, in spite of their close
association with the west, the Armenian
Catholic Church was not latinized and the
Armenian Evangelical Church was not
westernized. They preserved their Armenian
Christian roots, traditions, and identity. They