Harutyun Selimian

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Harutyun Selimian, 2014
Harutyun Selimian receives the “ Swords to Plowshares ” award , Dresden, October 8, 2017
Harutyun Selimian with the “Swords to Plowshares” award, Dresden, October 8, 2017
Harutyun Selimian with the “Swords to Plowshares” award, Dresden, October 8, 2017

Harutyun Selimian ( Arabic هاروتيون سليميان; Armenian Յարութիւն Սելիմեան ; * 13 April 1963 in Aleppo ), also English Haroutune Selimian or Haroutioun Selimian transcribed, is a Syrian pastor at the Armenian -evangelischen Bethel Church in Aleppo and since 2004 Chairman of the Union of Armenian Evangelical communities in Syria.

Life

Haroutune Selimian was born in Aleppo in 1963 and attended the Armenian School of the Immanuel Congregation and then received his secondary education at the American College of Aleppo, where he also obtained the general university entrance qualification. In the 1980s he went to Beirut ( Lebanon ), where he studied theology and psychology and graduated in 1988 with a bachelor's degree. From 1988 to 1990 he worked as a pastor at the Armenian Evangelical Trinity Church in the Armenian-influenced north-west Syrian Kessab . He then continued his theology studies from 1990 onwards at the McCormick Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Chicago ( USA ), where he completed his master's degree in 1992.

In 1992 Harutyun Selimian came to the Armenian Evangelical Bethel Church in Aleppo as a young pastor . According to the congregation, he was one of the youngest pastors in the history of the Armenian Evangelical Church. He has remained loyal to the Bethel parish ever since. Nevertheless, he stayed abroad for special trainings, so in 2000 at the Ecumenical Institute in Switzerland for training as an ecumenical leader and in 2001 again at the McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, where he received another master's degree in sacred theology. In the Bethel congregation in Aleppo and beyond, Selimian increasingly assumed leadership roles. In 1998 he became chairman of the Armenian Evangelical Church in Syria. He also became chairman of the Armenian Evangelical Education Committee in Syria in 1998. He is responsible for the following educational institutions: Armenian Evangelical Secondary School Bethel in Aleppo, Armenian College Immanuel in Aleppo, Evangelical Syrian School in Aleppo, Armenian Evangelical "School of Martyrs" in Kessab and the Armenian Evangelical School in Damascus. The Protestant secondary school Bethel in Aleppo experienced a major expansion under his leadership. From 1995 to 2003 Selimian was deputy director of the Armenian nursing home in Aleppo, which is run jointly by the three Armenian churches. In 2004 Selimian became President of the Union of Armenian Evangelical Congregations in Syria. In the same year he also became a member of the Armenian Evangelical World Council, of which he was chairman from 2009 to 2011.

As a pastor of the Bethel Church and President of the Armenian Evangelical Church in Syria, he experienced the civil war in Syria since 2011 , in which he had to organize aid for the people and keep the community together under the most difficult of conditions. According to him, fleeing Syria was out of the question for him, as everyone in Syria was needed right now. The roof of the Bethel Church was hit by rockets from the rebels. Nevertheless, in contrast to many other churches in Aleppo - also in the vicinity - the Bethel Church survived the battle for Aleppo from July 2012 to the expulsion of the Islamists in December 2016 without major damage. The worst losses for Selimian were the many parishioners who escaped the horrors of war by fleeing abroad. Nevertheless, there were church services every Sunday, and the Evangelical Bethel School as well as the other Armenian Evangelical schools could be kept open. According to Selimian, there were still 250 Protestant families in Aleppo in March 2016, and around 450 people came to worship in the Bethel Church on average. 35 families from the Bethel congregation had left Syria by then. An important step during the war was the establishment of the Bethel Polyclinic in June 2013. The treatment of psychological trauma was also an offer of the community during the war under the responsibility of Selimian. At a joint service of the three Armenian Evangelical Churches in Aleppo - the heavily damaged and unusable Immanuel Church , the Martyrs Church and the Bethel Church - in the Bethel Church on April 16, 2017 for the first Easter since the expulsion of the Islamists , led by Simon Der-Sahagian and Harutyun Selimian Aleppo attended about 2000 people. The child and youth work of the church, led by Pastor Selimian, among others, is still alive today.

Harutyun Selimian paid a visit to Germany in October 2017 . On October 7, 2017, he gave a lecture in Dresden on Christianity in Syria and its future. On October 8, 2017, the city's "Memorial Day for the Peaceful Revolution " in 1989, he preached in Dresden's Kreuzkirche . On the thinking and memorial "swords into plowshares" he received his commitment to peace in Syria by former Oberlandeskirchenrat and state youth pastor in recognition Harald Bretschneider of the "Initiative Group on October 8," the peace badge " swords into plowshares ". In the Nikolai Church in Leipzig Selimian participated in the October 9, 2017 at the Peace prayer and spoke before 1500 people in the crowded church. Soon after, he was on his way home again, which included a ten hour taxi ride from Beirut to Aleppo - past dangerous spots with snipers .

Awards (selection)

In May 2009 Selimian became an honorary citizen of the city of Aleppo. In October 2012 he received the Order of Merit for his commitment to human rights from the President of the Syrian Parliament, Muhammad Jihad al-Lahham . In March 2014, he received a plaque for 25 years of pastoral care and an award for 20 years of pastoral work from the Bethel Congregation. In Dresden (Germany) on October 8, 2017, he held the peace plaque “Swords to Plowshares”.

Private

Harutyun Selimian has been married to the Shoghakat Abardian-Selimian, who also comes from Aleppo, since 1995. You live in Aleppo and have two children (a daughter and a son).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Peace prayer and commemoration of October 8, 1989. Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saxony, October 6, 2017.
  2. ↑ a b Reverend Haroutioun Selimian elected president of the Armenian Evangelical World Council; Bianka Madia (Al-Jamahir, Aleppo): interview with Reverend Haroutioun Selimian on November 24, 2008 ( Memento from January 30, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). AZAD Hye Middle East Armenian Portal.
  3. ^ Armenian Evangelical Bethel Church History / 90th Anniversary. Retrieved June 19, 2020.
  4. ↑ See the numerous positions taken by Selimian here: AMAA Directory 2007 - Armenian Evangelical Churches, Institutions, Instrumentalities, Pastors and Christian Workers Worldwide ( Memento of October 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive ).
  5. ^ Armenian Evangelical Community in Syria. Noravank, September 24, 2010.
  6. ↑ a b c Bettina Röder: The Reconciler. Publik-Forum, October 27, 2017.
  7. ↑ “The attacks on our hope must not win!” - Evangelical in Aleppo. Gustav-Adolf-Werk , March 23, 2016.
  8. ↑ Haroutune Selimian: The situation of Christians and the Armenian Evangelical Church in Syria. Public speech, October 11, 2018.
  9. ^ Joint Easter Service at Armenian Evangelical Bethel Church. Report Easter in Aleppo, 2017, accessed June 19, 2020.
  10. ↑ “The most important thing is to tell them about Jesus” - Summer vacation Bible school in Aleppo for kids. Christian Relief Society in the Orient, July 10, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Selimian, Harutyun
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Selimian, Haroutune; Selimian, Haroutioun
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Syrian Armenian Evangelical Pastor and Chairman of the Union of Armenian Evangelical Congregations in Syria
DATE OF BIRTH April 13, 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH Aleppo