A ?priestly? challenge to reduce poverty and injustice in Armenia

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Helping the poor and oppressed, also known as 'diakonia', has been a historical role for the Church in Armenia, but today's priests are being challenged by other issues such as HIV prevention and environmental degradation. Instead of just 'giving aid' they're also being challenged to involve recipients of aid in the development process. They're learning how to put 'community participation' into practice in communities across Armenia. 'We want to make sure that the priests involve community members while designing community development projects', explained Karen Nazaryan, the Director of the World Council of Churches Armenia Inter-Church Round Table Foundation at the recent training course organised by World Vision Armenia and the Foundation. 'The priests were always present in the communities serving people in need, but today our service in the social sphere requires good preparedness and skills. We want our activities to have sustainable impact on the communities' life', said Father Nshan Panfyorov, from Shirak Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church who was one of 24 priests from the Armenian Apostolic Church that attended the training course. World Vision also intends to support the priests financially by funding their community development proposals in the future. 'We want to encourage the priests to propose projects that aim at empowering the communities to achieve their own development. This will be support with long-term impact', said Karine Harutyunyan, World Vision Armenia Government and Church Relations Manager. The history of social diakonia in Armenia, project planning, design and implementation, fund-raising, monitoring and evaluation skills were all covered during the training. World Vision also included sections regarding HIV and AIDS response and caring for the environment. 'We included these topics as the request came from the priests who need support in tackling these issues', said Karine Harutyunyan. 'We see lots of issues in the communities that need to be addressed, but the most important issue for us remains support to the educational activities for children and youth, so that they are well-prepared for life', said Father Panfyorov. Various educational activities, including both spiritual and art education, as well as vocational classes will feature in the priest's mini-projects which they intend to implement with the financial support of World Vision Armenia. Awareness-raising training sessions on environmental issues, HIV and AIDS prevention and promotion of healthy lifestyle will also be key to the projects. -Ends- *The Armenia Round Table of the World Council of Churches is an ecumenical faith-based programme formed on the initiative of the Armenian Church and the World Council of Churches, with the participation of the Armenian Evangelical and Armenian Catholic Churches. The goals of the Armenia Round Table are to pursue the development of benevolent, educational, cultural and social projects that will benefit Armenian society.