![[Christian and Missionary Alliance flag]](../images/r/rel_accil.gif)
image by Eugene Ipavec, 29 December 2009
Last modified: 2013-12-07 by rob raeside
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Outside the Armenian chapel at the Tomb of Mary in the Kidron Valley in Jerusalem, I saw a white flag with a dark blue border and a cross on the center. I couldn't get a good look at the cross but it appeared to be the so-called Cross of St. James, apparently a common emblem in the Armenian church, outlined in red and with the Armenian initials for "Saint James" (which, as I recall it, resemble a U and a 3) in blue on the center. I couldn't see the design well enough to sketch it, and it's probably too complicated for my drawing skills without a scan to work from, so the verbal description will have to do. I didn't see this flag at any of the other Armenian sites I went by, only the Armenian national flag.
Joe McMillan, 14 April 2000
I haven't seen this flag, but I can tell you that the "U" is the letter, "S"
which stands for "soorp," the Armenian word for "Saint" or "Holy." The "3" is
actually the capital letter, "H" which stands for "Hagop," the name for "James."
Taleen Nazarian, 30 September 2007
[Image provisional - text incomplete]
image by Eugene Ipavec, 29 December 2009
The flag of the Catholicosate of Cilicia may be seen at
http://www.armenianorthodoxchurch.org/v04/doc/Photos/Photos228.htm and
http://www.armenianorthodoxchurch.org/v04/doc/Photos/Photos386.htm among
others. The Catholicosate flag is blue, with its emblem in gold on a white disk.
The emblem, a mitre over 4 crossed ecclesiastical staffs, above a dove in flight
on a solar disk, can be seen at the Catholicosate's homepage,
http://www.armenianorthodoxchurch.org.
Ned Smith, 21 September
2009
That is undoubtedly the flag of the Catholicosate, but I don't think it bears
this emblem - a close look at the seal on the flag reveals what looks like an
eagle or phoenix overall. Also, I think the English text on
the edge of the seal on the flag may read only "ARMENIAN CATHOLICOSATE OF
CILICIA" - it's obscured, but there doesn't seem to be room for "great house."
Eugene Ipavec, 25 September 2009
The upper half of the ring should probably contain an Armenian inscription.
Eugene Ipavec, 29 December 2009
The Catholicosate of Cilicia is titularly and historically based in Turkey,
in practice headquartered in Lebanon since 1930, and exercises jurisdiction over
dioceses in Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Cyprus, Greece, the US and Canada. The claimed
membership distribution of its larger components is:
Lebanon- 120,000
Syria- 140,000
Iran-550,000
US- 360,000
[Lebanon, Syria, & Iran figures
from "Encyclopedia of the Orient"; US figures from "2009 World Almanac"]
Historically, its jurisdiction had been southern Anatolia (S. Turkey) and the
northern Levant (Syria & Lebanon). The congregations that were in Turkey are
gone following the post WWI massacres. The see administers dioceses in Cyprus by
arrangement with the See of Echmiadzin (the preeminent Catholicosate of the
Armenian Church). During the 1930s, because of concerns regarding Soviet
influence over Echmiadzin (based in Armenia), many North American Armenian
churches removed themselves from the jurisdiction of that see, and in the 1950s
the Catholicos of Cilicia agreed to exercise jurisdiction over those dissident
congregations (although numerous, they are less than a majority of North
American Armenians). Likewise, from similar fears during the Cold War the
Armenian Church in Iran (the largest Christian group in the nation) renounced
its adherence to Echmiadzin and switched it to Cilicia.
Ned Smith, 29
December 2009
