Currently there are about 150 students attending. Nearly all of them are from Armenia. There is only a handful from the Diaspora. There is one student from Syria, another from Iraq, and I’m told there is a student from Germany, though I haven’t met him yet. He’s doing a really good job of blending in. Students who come from Georgia or Karabakh are also called Diasporans, but kind of jokingly.
They are all required to live in the dormitory throughout their education, and share rooms with their classmates until their sixth year when they’re given individual rooms (space permitting). The student’s day is strictly organized. The following is their schedule:
6am - Wake up
7:30am - Morning Service
After Services - Breakfast
9am-2:30pm - Classes
3pm - Lunch
4pm-5pm - Study
5:30pm - Evening Service
After Services - Wash up
7pm - Dinner
8pm-11pm - Study
11:30pm - Lights out
They are not permitted to leave the monetary during the week, except on Sundays after church if they’ve got permission, but they usually have to be back in time for evening service.
This structure, although very strict, has a few really wonderful effects. The first is that the students are left, essentially, without distraction. They don’t have any relationships (active relationships anyway) with people outside of the seminary, and they have nothing else going on except attending classes and doing homework. This way they’re sure to have enough time to get their work done. Since, they share the same classes, and therefore the same workload, all of their class work is essentially group work. So they always study everything together. Due to this, the bond that is developed amongst the classmates is tremendous. They really are brothers by the time they graduate the seminary, and know each other as well as they know anyone in this world. It’s a very successful support system, and they build strong relationships that will benefit them personally and vocationally throughout their lives.
To Be Married
The downside to all this male bonding time was something I referred in the first installment… the girl thing. In order to be ordained as a married priest, you must be married first. The problem is that most of these young men have very little opportunity to meet girls. They have a couple months during their summer vacation when they can socialize, but they inevitably begin the next academic year, and spend the majority of the following 9 months out of contact. The result of this is that they have a very hard time developing interpersonal skills, especially the kind necessary for talking to women. In the short time that I’ve been here I’ve been asked on three separate occasions how to talk to girls, about what girls like, and more.
From one perspective it’s cute and it’s refreshing to see that their able to keep their innocence for so long in this regard. From the other perspective, it’s got to be awful for them to graduate in their mid-twenties and have to stress about learning how to meet and marry a girl as soon as possible so they can pursue their calling.
I don’t mean to over state this issue. It’s not something that’s considered an issue here, in fact it’s due rigeur or like a right of passage perhaps, but it struck me as being interesting
Growing Pains
The youngest students, as I said, are 17 years old. They aren’t mature 17 year olds either. They’re the same self-affected, insecure, and arrogant 17 year olds that I knew when I was in high school. It’s interesting that even though the culture and educational system is completely different in Armenia from the United States, a teenager is still a teenager. They struggle a great deal with the restrictions put on them, and the high expectations of this place. Many of them come from villages, and the quality of their primary education ranged from mediocre to awful. In order to be accepted to the school, they have to pass an entrance exam, but still they frequently have difficulty with the level of the instruction.
It’s hard to say what drives them at such a young age to pursue the priesthood. I’ve spoken to many of them about it, and each has his own answers. For some its a familial oblegation, others were inspired by a priest of deacon in their community, for others its done out of a sense of social righteousness. I heard one young man when being questioned as to whether or not he had what it took to be a priest say “I’m a good person. I stand up for other people.” I thought that was interesting. There are also young men who are here for reasons they won’t share, perhaps they’ve made personal oaths, or are even being sent here as a disciplinary measure.
While it’s not a direct comparison, it’s amazing to see the level of the oldest students compared to the youngest and see that they’ve transformed so much within the span of five years. The youngest students, though I’ve grown to be very fond of them, aren’t responsible enough to warrant being asked to care for a friend’s pet. The oldest students on the other hand, are knowledgeable and humble young men who you can easily see are the future leaders of the Church.
When put in that context it’s very clear that this seminary is doing its job well. That isn’t to say that certain things aren’t deserving of critique, but I think it’s far too early for me to start being critical.
