Holy Week Passions: "The Eve of the Last Supper"

A Divine Liturgy of the Armenian Orthodox Church at the Armenian Church Youth Ministries Center in Glendale, California

Celebrant Priest: Father Vazken Movsesian
Musical Selection: Gor Mkhitarian from the Spirit Album
Camera: Christaphor Movsesian
Sign Language: Ashot Tadevosian
Produced by: Suzie Shatarevyan for Epostle.net

Holy Week 2009 – 99¢ Store Miracle

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the focal point of Holy Week. And during this period, we don’t just remember the events of Holy Week, but we actually live them through our services. In this podcast Fr. Vazken leads us through an experience at the 99¢ store worth a million dollar miracle. Tune in to make the miracle your own. Overcome your crosses by understanding Jesus’ desire to walk in our shoes. Here’s a last minute sprint to the Resurrection.

Spiritual Bubbles with Ani Burr reading an excerpt from a meditation on the Resurrection called “Condemned to Immortality” by Abbot Father Justin Popovic.

Global Perspective with Hratch Tchilingirian turns his attention towards the UN’s Alliance on Civilizations, which this week held its Second Forum in Istanbul, Turkey, and aimed at advancing intercultural understanding.

Second Coming: It’s No April Fool’s Joke

Which way do you look to see Jesus’ second coming? East? West? And how far? 2 years? 20 years? 2000 years? The answer might surprise some and even irritate others, but to the Next Stepper, it’s one more way that Armenian orthodoxy gives a practical answer to life’s imponderables. What happens at the end? Are the sheep the only Curly ones? Or is Curly sheepish today? Check out this last-of-Lent podcast for many more answers!

Global Perspective with Hratch Tchilingirian discusses major world gatherings including NATOs annual meeting and the Arab League Summit, with particular attention on Omar al Bashir and the Arab League’s rejection of the ICC.

Spiritual Bubbles with Ani Burr completes the final 4 verses of Nerses Shnorhali’s Havadov Khosdovanimk.

Prayer Beyond the Wish List

Praying for a Mercedes with Janis or an end to the war in Iraq all involve something deeper than a mere conversation. Fr. Vazken discusses a very misunderstood topic: Prayer. Whether you want to hang out at the pool of Bethesda or lament your losses in the stock market, you’ll want to listen in on this Lenten journey brought to you after this year’s Vernal Equinox.

Darfur update – following Gabriel and the StopGenocideNow team

Global Perspective with Hratch Tchilingiran discusses the spiritual dimensions to the global economy and the G20 Summit taking place in London.

Spiritual Bubbles with Ani Burr continues Nerses Shnorholi's Havadov Khosdovanimk (17-20)

Darfur Genocide Escalates

As the Genocide escalates in Darfur, the In His Shoes mission turned its focus to more creative means of activism. This podcast is uniquely dedicated to the Darfur Genocide, but much more, it is about the faith and hope in the power of good. Here, Fr. Vazken guides the listener through an exercise in spiritual and moral warfare against evil. Complacency and indifference are constants that keep us from peace and harmony in our lives as well as on our planet. Martin King equates silence over crime with cooperation of evil, laying the groundwork for the moral-imperative Christians must find in life. This podcast will challenge the listener to move to action in various parts of his or her life. What does a mother pray as she watches her child raped or killed? The outrage over young girls being raped in Darfur, continues as an outrage against our own apathy. This is must listening for everyone who wants to “walk in the shoes of others.”

Global Perspective: Hratch Tchilingirian gives a briefing about Darfur, with historical and analytical angles.

Spiritual Bubbles with Ani Burr: St. Nersess Shnorhali’s “I Confess with Faith” continues (verse 13-16)

Coming Home – the sin of the Prodigal

Building on the theme of Lent, this 3rd week of Lent focuses on the story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15). The theme of the podcast is “Coming home.” On this 50th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising against China, Fr. Vazken adds a candle on an Armenian altar as a gesture of solidarity. Listeners are invited to go beyond the story of the Prodigal and see themselves as reflections of the characters – whether the envy of the older brother, the wasteful natures of the younger son, or ideally, in the compassion of the father. Also – the flight of the bumble bee casts a stinger at the honey as a “Lenten food”?
A fitting podcast for the mid-Lent journey.

Spiritual Bubbles with Ani Burr continues Nerses Shnorhali's Havadov Khosdovanim.

Global Perspective with Hratch Tchilingirian. Part 3/3 of Christian minorities in the Middle East. This segment highlights the external problems and pressures, again taking the Armenian community as an example.

Free Will and Responsibility

Building on the themes presented last week, the Lenten Journey continues with a look at Free Will and Responsibility. An Armenian Orthodox look at God presents metaphysical concepts which scrape the surface of space-time as understood in the concept of Love. This is some of the ground work necessary to understand the broader concepts of love and relationship building that will be coming out in subsequent podcasts. The prodigal, steward and judge are stored away for next week’s continuation of the Lenten Journey. Also, an invitation to participate in the annual In His Shoes ‘Famine’ aiding world hunger.

Spiritual Bubbles by Ani Burr: The Prayers of St. Nersess Shnorhali (continued)

Global Perspective with Hratch Tchilingirian: Discusses Christian minorities in the Middle East today with a particular focus on the Armenian communities and issues of identity with a look at school, church, and media. (Part 2/3)

Song: “Orhnyal eh Asdvadz” by the Students of the Vazkenian Seminary, Sevan, Armenia