Rev. Fr. Karekin Bedourian Appointed Pastor of Forty Martyrs Church in Orange County


H.E. Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian, Prelate, and the Religious and Executive Councils are pleased to announce to our faithful that Rev. Fr. Karekin Bedourian has been appointed Pastor of Forty Martyrs Church in Orange County, where he will begin his service on Monday, July 1st, 2013.

On Sunday, July 7, the Feast of Transfiguration, Fr. Karekin will celebrate his first Divine Liturgy as Pastor of Forty Martyrs Church.  The Prelate will preside over the service and officially introduce the new pastor to the parish community.

Fr. Karekin Bedourian, baptismal name Hrair, was born in Kessab, Syria in 1983.  He received his primary education at Usumnasirats National School of Kessab, and in 1995 enrolled at the Catholicosate of Cilicia Seminary, from where he graduated in 2004.  He has been a member of the Association of Theological Institutes in the Middle East (ATIME), and has participated in numerous religious and youth conferences in Cyprus, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon.  Fr. Karekin served within the Prelacy of Lebanon for two years, and from 2005-2008 was the choir conductor at St. Hagop Church in Ashrafieh, Lebanon.  He completed courses for Sunday School teachers, youth Bible studies, and the study of rituals and hymns, and from 2006-2008 studied Pastoral and Theoretical Theology at the Near East School of Theology (NEST) in Beirut, Lebanon.  In October of 2008 he married Miss Sevan Haneshian.

Fr. Karekin was ordained into the priesthood on March 8, 2009 in Kessab by H.E. Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan.  He was given the pastoral name Karekin in memory of His Holiness Karekin II of the Holy See of Cilicia, later Karekin I of Etchmiadzin, who was also from Kessab.

He served in the Armenian Prelacy of the Eastern United States from October 2009 until May 2013.  From 2011-2013 he studied Theology at Boston College, from where he earned a Master’s Degree.

Fr. Karekin and Yeretsgin Sevan have two daughters, Megheti and Nareh.

We welcome Fr. Karekin and his family to the Western Prelacy and wish him success in his new ministry.

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