MOSCOW, JUNE 19, NOYAN TAPAN - ARMENIANS TODAY. The number of parish communities of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Russia has reached 60, Blagovest-Info reported, referring to Golos Armenii newspaper's interview with Bishop Yezras Nersesian, the Head of Nor Nakhijevan and Russian Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Bishop Nersesian said in the interview that during the first years after his appointment as the head of Nor Nakhijevan and Russian Diocese, the diocese had seven priests in 10 parish communities registered at the Russian Ministry of Justice. Now 27 priests serve in the parish communities. Bishop Nersesian considered the construction of the Moscow church complex which began in 2006 as the greatest achievement. The complex will become the biggest spiritual educational and cultural structure of the Armenian Apostolic Church outside Armenia. According to Bishop Nersesian, the disocese includes not only Russia's parish communities from Vladivostok to Kaliningrad, but also those in Baltic states, Belarus, Moldova and Central Asia. "During my years as the diocesan head, 15 churches were built and consecrated in cities where there had been no Armenian churches in the past, namely in Barnaul, Krasnoyarsk, Yaroslavl, Volgograd, Samara, Tver, Omsk, Vladivostok, Ulan-Ude, Sterlitamak, Saratov, Yekaterinburg, and Rostov-on-Don," the bishop said, addressing the problem of the preservation of Armenian identity. In his words, "our sacred duty is to unify the Armenian people around our Church, to maintain and ensure a link among the generations and between the present and the past, to bring God's Word to each parish, each human through the Gospel, to open schools and educational centers for our children, for the upbringing of the younger generation. The most important task is unite the young persons around our national spiritual values. We must prevent Diasporan Armenians from moving away from their roots, and the faith helps preserve our identity".

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