On Friday, May 4, 2018, seminary Alumnus and faculty member Very Rev. Dr. Daniel Findikyan was elected Primate of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America. His election now awaits anticipated confirmation by His Holiness, Karekin II, the Catholicos of All Armenia.
Pending confirmation, Fr. Daniel will serve as the twelfth primate of the diocese, succeeding Archbishop Khajag Barsamian. Fr. Daniel will also become the first primate born in America in the 120-year history of the Eastern Diocese.
“I am deeply, deeply moved. I am deeply honored,” Fr. Daniel told media outlet Parev TV. “I only pray that the Lord will guide me personally to bring to bear everything that I can, [and] that the Lord brings our entire diocese—all of our faithful—together.”
Fr. Daniel Findikyan is a native of Fort Worth, Texas. Ordained as a celibate priest in 1997, and a noted international scholar of liturgics, Fr. Daniel has served the Armenian Church as dean of North America’s St. Nersess Armenian Seminary, and currently serves as director of the Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center, the Eastern Diocese’s research and scholarship facility. He is professor of Armenian Studies at St. Vladimir’s Seminary, where he graduated with a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) degree in 1989. He also obtained a M.Div. from St. Nersess Seminary. Fr. Daniel earned his doctorate in Liturgical Studies from the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome, where he studied under Robert Taft, S.J., and holds a Master of Arts degree in Musicology from the City University of New York.
Fr. Daniel has published numerous articles in scholarly journals and books, and has and has lectured throughout the United States, as well as in Armenia, Greece, Italy, Lebanon, Sweden, Slovakia and Russia.
Sections of this article are reprinted from the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America and St. Nersess Armenian Seminary.
