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Isolated Armenians of southern Georgia receive Scripturesby Rune Hansen, Photojournalist working with the Danish Bible Society GEORGIA — Every Sunday, between 80 and 100 people gather in the ruins of a church in the village of Gumbourdo in the predominantly Armenian Samtskhe-Javakheti region of southern Georgia to read aloud from the Bible. The church has been without a priest for decades but this has not discouraged the village’s faithful from meeting there each week. For most of them, it is their only chance to hear the Word of God. When the little church was first reopened it was used as a barn for livestock – a fact that particularly appalled a villager called Armen. He took action and today, thanks to him, the church is once again serving its original purpose. But a shortage of Bibles has been an ongoing source of frustration for the villagers – a frustration that is shared by many of the Christians in the region. Identity
The Christian faith is integral to the culture and identity of most Armenians who are proud of their nation’s historical connection with Christianity. More than a decade after the end of communist rule in Georgia, however, the scarcity of Scriptures is yet another hardship for the people of this troubled region whose borders have been pushed back and forth between Georgia and Armenia by the changing winds of history and local ethnic power struggles. That is why Armen was so excited last year when he heard that a distribution of Scriptures was to take place in the city of Akhalkalaki. Despite being confined to a wheelchair with muscular atrophy he made the long, uncomfortable journey to gather with hundreds of other representatives from schools, churches, youth organisations and other institutions at the main cathedral. There, they each received Scripture packages containing an Armenian Bible and other resources to help people engage with Scripture, such as The Bible in the Armenian Tradition and Opening up the Bible. The distribution was carried out by a team from the Bible Society in Armenia, with the full support of the UBS Representation in Georgia, and in co-operation with the three main denominations operating in the region – the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Armenian Catholic Church and the Armenian Evangelical Church. Leaders from these three churches actively took part in the distribution, delighted to work together. DelightedThe distribution team also visited other towns and villages in the region, including the village of Khojabek. As the team handed out the packages at the recently renovated old church, a man approached Arshavir Kapoudian, Board Secretary of the Armenian Bible Society, and asked him to bless his disabled son. At the man’s house Mr Kapoudian blessed the little boy, who was delighted at all the attention, and gave him a Bible. His parents and grandmother promised to read it to him every day. Survived The team also visited schools because
one of the main reasons for the trip was to complete the Society’s
Bringing the Bible to Schools project, which ran throughout Armenia
from 2002 to 2004. And it soon became apparent how desperately this
project is needed here: a teacher in the only school in the town of
Tamala said, “We are Christians but 90 per cent of us have not
had the opportunity to be baptised. We survived the communist era by
holding on to our faith but now we have no access to or knowledge of
the Bible.” Another teacher, delighted to receive a Scripture package
for the school library, commented, “Through these Scriptures we
shall build our spiritual house.”
Another teacher was sceptical: “My whole life I have been told that God does not exist,” he said. “Gagarin was sent to space and reported that he had not seen God. Now you come along and tell us about Adam and Eve and that the world was created in seven days. Do you expect us to believe this?” The three church leaders were pleased to answer his question, which stimulated an interesting discussion about the creation story in Genesis and what it means for modern man. Students and teachers listened intently. One of the last places the team visited was the tiny village of Abul, which rests on the slopes of the great Mount Abul – an important national symbol for the southern Georgian Armenians. It is a very poor village, with no electricity or running water, but it has an ancient history, marked mainly by its two churches – an Armenian church, which is 300 years old, and a Greek church, thought to be around 1,000 years old. Both have been closed for decades. Determined
This has not deterred the village’s Christians from using them as places of private prayer and worship, however; both churches were filled with lovingly tended icons and candles. The Christians here, as in many other villages and towns across the region, are determined to keep their faith despite hardships and a lack of Scriptures. As the team prepared to leave the village, they gave a Scripture to the man who had shown them the churches. Soon the distribution van was surrounded by other people desperate for Scriptures. The team gave away as many copies as they could spare but many villagers were left empty-handed and despondent. The aim of this first distribution trip
was to place Scriptures in churches, schools and other institutions.
The Armenian Bible Society hopes to be able to visit the region again
to provide Scriptures for individuals. The dream is to be able to provide
each Armenian in southern Georgia with a copy of the Bible. (WR 400/13
- 03.06) [7 photos] Former judge Hagop Mamikonovich described the
distribution as “a great encouragement”
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