20000115

Armenian president to visit Bethlehem

JERUSALEM: Armenian President Robert Kocharyan and the new head of the Armenian Church, Catholicos Garegin II, will visit Bethlehem for Christmas next week, the Church said on Friday.

The Armenian Apostolic Church, one of the world's oldest Christian denominations, celebrates Christmas on January 19.

The Armenian Patriarchate in Jerusalem said both leaders would attend Christmas Eve midnight mass at the Church of the Nativity in Palestinian-ruled Bethlehem, revered by Christians as the birthplace of Jesus, on January 18.

It will be the third Christmas in less than a month in Bethlehem after ceremonies on December 24 and 25 for Western rite churches and on January 6 and 7 for Orthodox denominations.

Garegin II was enthroned in November as Catholicos or leader of the Armenian Church at its seat in Etchmiadzin. The Patriarchate said he would begin his first official visit abroad in Jordan on Friday and arrive in Israel on January 17.

The Armenian Apostolic Church claims seven million followers worldwide and is one of the so-called Ancient Churches of the East. They split from Byzantine Christianity before the Great Schism of 1054 that divided the Eastern and Western Churches.

In 301, King Trdat III proclaimed Armenia a Christian country, 36 years before the baptism of Emperor Constantine I, the first Christian ruler of the Roman Empire.-Reuters