The group of new students came all the way from Armenia to study here. Rev. Fr. Zaven Yazichyan, who has joined Armenian College and Philanthropic Academy, accompanied the children in their journey.

Four boys namely Zohrab Keropyan, Volodya Keropyan, Azat Papyan and Arman Hovhannisyan and two girls namely Viktorya Nikoghosyan and Tatevik Gevorgyan comprised the new group of students.

Zohrab and Volodya come from Lernavan village, situated in Vanadzor region of Armenia. While Azat, Arman and Viktorya are from Armavir region, Tatev comes from Yerevan.

The tournament commenced at 9 o’clock in the morning and ended at 5 o’clock in the evening.

There was a fierce competition among all the teams as each of them was experienced.

The young Armenians displayed a scintillating performance as they won five games out of six that they played.

The semi-final was well – contested where our team played against Pirate Ants from Orissa and owing to a gallant effort of our boys, we ultimately won with a score of (30 – 5).

Our boys, despite their skilful performance throughout the tournament, lost in the Finals to become the Runner Up of the tournament. They were 10 – 10 till the scheduled end of the match but lost in the ‘golden try’.

Many young players played for the first time in this tournament from ACPA but each one of them proved to be an asset in the days to come.

A Requiem Service was conducted and prayers were offered for the innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide. The Memorial Service took place at the beautiful marble memorial, erected in 1965 in the northern side of the churchyard, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Armenian Genocide. The congregation prayed for the souls of countless martyrs to repose in peace and bowed in reverence at the foot of a weeping angel, to lay flowers.

Members of the Church Committee, members of Armenian Community, staff and students of ACPA graced the occasion. Armenian College, the second oldest educational institute of Kolkata, was established in April 1821 by its benefactors Mr. Astwasatoor Mooradkhanian and Mr. Manatsakan Vartanian. Ever since, the institution has striven assiduously not only to educate Armenian students, but also to uphold and preserve the Armenian identity.

The programme commenced with the Lord’s Prayer followed by the National Anthems of Armenia and India and the School Anthem. Following this, the Principal of the school delivered his address. The Principal’s address was followed by the mellifluous strains of two solo song renditions. A vibrant Arabian Dance was then presented by a cross section of students belonging to the institution. Thereafter, a skit entitled The Awakening, inspired by Oscar Wilde’s celebrated story ‘The Selfish Giant’, was staged by the students. The skit was followed by prize distribution ceremony and two more dance recitals.

A new prize has been instituted this year to acknowledge and to promote the concept that humility and good conduct are preferred to academic performance. Therefore this is the most coveted prize in The Armenian College and Philanthropic Academy. In the year of its institution, the prize was awarded to Vedi Haroutounian of class X. Two scintillating dance recitals followed the prize distribution ceremony.

The programme ended with the benediction by Very Rev. Father Khoren Hovhannisyan, Pastor of Armenians in India and Manager of Armenian College and Philanthropic Academy.

The celebration was marked with a spirit of fulfilment and gratitude towards the Founders.

Loreto College has a Student Council headed by a President and Vice President elected by the students of the College. Tatevik was elected the Vice President for the Academic Year 2010 – 11.

Loreto College which is affiliated to the University of Calcutta, was founded in 1912 by the Institute of Blessed Virgin Mary and has now over a thousand students on its roll.

She received support from the Armenian Church of India when she went to England to pursue her higher studies in humanities.

Tatevik has made us proud by graduating with a Master of Arts in International Studies (2011 – 2012) from the prestigious University of Sheffield, UK which was ranked as University of the Year 2011 by Times Higher Education.

Very Rev. Father Khoren Hovhannisyan, Pastor of Armenians in India and Manager of Armenian College and Philanthropic Academy conducted the Divine Liturgy. During the Holy Mass, he blessed the faithful with the golden hand of St. John the Baptist and began his sermon with the following words ‘Give yourselves to God …Surrender your whole being to Him to be used for righteous purposes’ (Romans 6:13)’. He emphasised the importance of surrendering oneself entirely to God, to trust Him, to love Him and to have a firm belief in Him because the Almighty loves us all. Father also stressed upon the importance of St. John the Baptist and his significant role in the Church. The congregation showed reverence and bowed down to the relic of St. John the Baptist and pleaded for his intercession.

At the end of the service a sumptuous lunch was organised by the Church Committee of Holy Nazareth of Kolkata.

The last Melik of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh), Fridon Beglar(May 01, 1795 – September 22, 1884) is buried beneath the belfry of the Church. Once there were many Armenians living in Chinsurah. Although today there are no Armenians living in the town but the Church is in good condition and is being preserved by the Church Committee of Holy Nazareth.

After the opening prayer, an estimation of the poet Sayat Nova was delineated through a brief but cohesive speech. The programme, which was a glowing tribute to the compositions of the poet, commenced with a solo song ‘Kamancha’ rendered melifluously. Subsequently, the song ‘Mejhlumi pes’, another composition of the poet was sung magnificiently and the soft cadence of the singer’s dulcet voice filled the auditorium. ‘Tamam Ashkharh” and ‘Ashkharhums Akh Chim Kashi’, both very significant compositions by Sayat Nova, followed immediately after. The next item in the programme was a song ‘Yes mi gharib blbuli’ by Sayat Nova, arranged for solo piano by Topchyan. The lilting tones of the piano created an etheral ambience which enraptured the audience.

Following the piano recital, the song ‘Chka Kizi Nman’ was presented in full-throated ease. The solo recitals ended with a plaintive rendition of ‘Doon en Glkhen’. The tribute concluded with the fitting rendition of ‘Fantazia’ performed by the well-rehearsed School Choir, conducted by Mr. Sevil Arakelyan. The music was a garland of three Sayat Nova songs woven together in perfect concordance by Robert Petrosyan. The School Choir was accompanied by Mrs.Narine Sahakyan on the keyboard, Mr. Vachegan Tadevosyan on the oboe and Mr Arindrajit Saha on the violin.

In the end Very Rev. Father Khoren Hovhannisyan, Pastor of Armenians in India and Manager of Armenian College and Philanthropic Academy, blessed the participants, students and teachers and appreciated their wonderful performance. The evening concluded with benediction by Father Khoren.

Children of various schools in the city were invited to take part in the celebrations. On this occasion, The American Library had organized screening of movies, story – telling sessions, art and craft exhibition and workshops and other activities for children.

The US Consul General in Kolkata, Mr. Dean R. Thompson and his wife Mrs. Jane Thompson were present on the occasion. The Deputy Director of the American Center, Ms. Rachel Sunden too was present and interacted with the students. Mrs. Jane Thompson, who has been an early-childhood special education teacher by profession, conducted a story – telling session in which she captivated the hearts of the children by her unique style of animated story – telling.

On arrival at the library, the students prepared cards and pasted them on the Thanksgiving Tree kept at the reception lobby. The tree was decorated by students of many other schools as well. The students browsed through various books and periodicals in the library after the story – telling session. Subsequently, they took part in art and craft workshop. A movie screening was organized on the third floor of the library. There was an arrangement of light refreshments for the kids.

On the whole, it was a very educative and enjoyable day out for the children.

Father Khoren welcomed the revered guest and congratulated him and the members of Indian Orthodox Malankara Church on the centenary of establishment of the Catholicate in India and wished that the Almighty blessed the Spiritual Headquarter of the sister church in Kerala with many more glorious centenaries.

The Metropolitan Dr. Joseph Mar Dionysius expressed his joy for the meeting and enquired about the structure and functioning of Armenian Church of India and Armenian College and Philanthropic Academy.

His Grace invited Father Khoren to visit their spiritual headquarter in Kerala and showed his willingness to visit Armenia and in particular, Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin on a suitable occasion.

They prayed together and later Dr. Joseph addressed the students of the Academy in the schoolyard. In his speech, he asked the students to pursue their academics with zeal and to nurture their love for books and aspire to become worthy sons of Armenia.

Very Rev. Father and His Grace exchanged mementoes and good wishes before bidding goodbye.

The competition was captivating. Difficult words, from their academic syllabi, were given to the spellers of different Houses. As the competition was not of a collective nature, each speller tried her / his level best to spell the words accurately within the limited span of 45 seconds.

The competition was conducted on a knock-out basis. The spellings were arranged in ascending level of difficulty, starting from the simple and ending with the challenging ones. In the end, three spellers, viz., Arian Makarian, Joshua Joseph and Razmeeg H. Suren bravely faced an incessant fusillade of spellings and fought to their best intellectual abilities. Finally, Razmeeg H. Suren emerged victorious and was declared the “Speller of the Year”.

The jury included Mr. Pabitra Sen and Mrs. Sreya Sarkar as lexicon – in – charge, Mrs. Mousumi Datta and Ms. Payel Banerjee as scorekeepers and Mrs. Soma Sarkar as the timekeeper. The Pronouncer of the competition was Mr. Arindrajit Saha.