About the author
Fr. Arshen Aivazian was born in Beirut, Lebanon. He entered the Seminary of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem in 1956, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1965. He came to the United States in 1970 and continued his graduate studies at St. Vladimir Orthodox Theological Seminary in NY graduating in 1974 with a Master of Divinity degree. He completed his doctoral coursework in theology/liturgical studies at Fordham University. Fr. Arshen has served in parishes in the Eastern and Western Dioceses of the Armenian Church of North America. He is a former Dean of St. Nersess Armenian Seminary.
Fr. Arshen has translated many liturgical texts into English and modern Armenian. His accomplishment of note is the translation of the complete text of the Divine Liturgy. In 2008 he published Echoes of Faith, a collection of homilies of clergy victims and survivors of the Armenian Genocide. In 2021 he published the Lectionary of the Armenian Church in English.
Fr. Arshen and Yeretzgin Sirarpi currently live in Fair Lawn, NJ. They have two children Macrina and Timothy, and two grandchildren Noah Garabed and Ani Grace.