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especially the unforgettable young duduk player, were powerful incentives to
believe in the Armenian future. I was reminded of some words of Catholicos
Karekin I – “The church everywhere in the world has to proclaim the truth
that life is more than food and the body more than clothing.” He emphasised the
crucial role of young people in building “a healthy well balanced church-nation
relationship”, a “harmony” as a “source of regeneration of the spiritual values
that are urgently needed by mankind at this critical time”.
Armenian culture and enterprise have always flowered whenever
historical circumstances in the region have permitted. In our own day as
unchallengeable Western hegemony recedes to be replaced by a more genuinely
multi-polar world the significance of places like Armenia which stands at the
crossroads of the traffic between East and West has a fresh potential.
Then again in our growing global culture and economy the presence of
the Armenian diaspora in so many lands where they have settled constitutes
one of those networks which enriches communications without homogenising
the world.
When this Abbey Church was consecrated in 1269, Leo II had just
become King of Armenia and the alliance between English and Armenian
Kings was already long established. Armenian expertise in military engineering
especially castle building had an influence in these islands of the far West. The
presence of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales together with our
distinguished visitors from Armenia promises a renewal of these ancient ties
consecrated in the blood of the martyrs and dedicated to the cause of
international peace and harmony. In the words of His Holiness the Catholicos,
following the example of the holy martyrs and through their intercessions we
are constrained to work together for peace with justice “wherever human rights
are trampled”, “wherever faith and identity are fanaticised.”
One of the most attractive and tragic victims of 1915 was Archimandrite
Komitas who preserved much of the cultural heritage of Western Armenia by
his collection of folk songs. He introduced polyphony into Church music as we
have heard and also the organ. He was a figure of European celebrity and
significance who spent many years in Berlin and Paris and even visited the Isle
of Wight. He was traumatised by the events of 1915 and never recovered from
the Great Catastrophe but in his poetry he calls out to us not only to
remember but to keep turned towards the light,
“Every day, take a lantern, keep it bright as the light source of
your mind –

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