Chaplaincy service in the army terminated: who will assume spiritual responsibility?
Starting February 1, the activities of spiritual servants appointed by the Armenian Apostolic Church in the RA Armed Forces will be terminated. On January 30, Minister of Defense Suren Papikyan published the order on social media. Spiritual service will now be managed under the coordination of the Moral-Psychological Support Department of the RA AF General Staff and implemented under the command of the military unit commander.
This means that the service of chaplains appointed to the army by the Armenian Apostolic Church is being terminated. From now on, chaplains will operate exclusively under the coordination of the General Staff, accompanied by the commanders of the military units.
The Minister’s order itself specifies that individuals conscripted for mandatory military service who are spiritual servants of the Armenian Holy Apostolic Church will continue their service in the respective military unit as senior chaplains or chaplains of the rank-and-file, subject to the agreement of the Moral-Psychological Department of the General Staff.
Earlier, the spiritual pastor of Goris, Father (Ter) Aharon Melkumyan, stated that commanders of army corps are urging chaplains to join the Prime Minister’s anti-Catholicos agenda; however, no clergyman in the army has yet reported participating in this initiative.
It should be noted that Papikyan had previously stated that the army would not interfere in political processes.
To recap, the Spiritual Ministry of the RA Armed Forces was established on November 13, 1997, through the joint initiative of Catholicos Karekin I and RA Minister of Defense Vazgen Sargsyan. The army’s spiritual leadership was initially created for the border guard troops of the Armenian Army, as well as for the army of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh. Archbishop Navasard Kchoyan’s signature can also be seen under the decree.