by John Arsenault

Hello, I am John Arsenault and I am an Armenian. I would like to thank Der Hovnan and the parish council for the opportunity to speak to you today briefly about Stewardship.

But first, let me explain my personal Armenian heritage. My father Mike Arsenault passed away last month. He was well known to those at Holy Trinity in Boston for his efforts at the annual Christmas bazaar and his mastery at cooking shish kebab at many cultural events. My mother was Mary Tashjian and my grandmother Aghavni lived with us most of my childhood and we prayed the Hay Mer every night at the foot of my bed. Our household language was Armenian. I had difficulty in kindergarten adjusting to English. Aghavni was a genocide survivor.

My uncle was Aram Hintlian. He was also my Godfather. Uncle Aram was told by his mother to gather only what he could carry. The next day he was marched out of his village at the age of 7 years old and he recounted his experience on a DVD when he was 85 years old. His father and his uncle were shot dead before the march began. He had never spoken of this before this time.

Over thousands of years various cultures have tried to eradicate the Armenian state and our culture. We were once a Roman state, an Ottoman state, a Soviet state, and many others. Pulitzer prize and Oscar winner William Saroyan is quoted as saying and writing “Go ahead, destroy Armenia. See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” This is pretty much what happened here at St. Hagop. A few Armenians got together to share in their culture and to pray together. This lead to this beautiful new house of God.

I was asked to say a few words about what stewardship means to me. Stewardship, according to the Miriam Webster dictionary, means “the conducting, supervising, or managing something: ESPECIALLY the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care.” The care of our Armenian faith, culture and St. Hagops has been entrusted to us.

Some of the following statements have been plagiarized from a stewardship effort at Holy Trinity in Boston. Aram’s daughter, my cousin Nancy Hintlian was the chairperson in 1993.

Stewardship is the practice of proportionate giving of one’s talents, time, and money to sustain their faith, culture and our church. The program’s success depends on the participation of each person who considers St. Hagop to be his or her spiritual home and believes in our church and wants to support and perpetuate its traditions, missions, programs and activities. This church is our house of worship where we receive the sacraments and sustain our faith and the faith of our forefathers. Additionally, our church provides us with the opportunity for Christian fellowship through spiritual, educational and cultural activities to help us sustain the fullness of our common bond as Armenians.

Stewardship helps St. Hagop to understand and plan for its future commitments. For me, personally, it is a way for me to commit some of my resources to perpetuate the Armenian faith, the oldest declared Christian faith on earth.

Thank you for the chance to express my feelings.