Page 196 - THE ARMENIAN CHURCH_Neat

PEOPLE'S CHURCH

Wherever the Christian faith has acquired
an indigenous character, it has created a
national church. The process has been
spurred by geopolitical, cultural, and ethnic
factors and considerations. However, the
word 'national' takes on different connota-
tions in different contexts. In the case of
the Armenian Church, because of its close
identification with the total life of the people
and the leading role it plays in all domains
and aspects of the nation's life, I depict it as
a people's church par excellence.

Indigenization of Christianity
The formal conversion of Armenia to
Christianity made Christianity a state reli-
gion, and the invention of the Armenian
alphabet made Christianity the religion of
the people in the most authentic sense of
the phrase. These landmark events took the
Christian faith beyond institutional, theolo-
gical, and liturgical confines and fully inte-
grated it into the very texture and ethos of
the people's life. The Christianization of the
Armenian people and the Armenianization
of Christianity embraced each other coher-