All You Need Is Love and Faith…and the White Pages

By: Ani Khachoyan
akhachoyan@gmail.com

William Saroyan’s poem “The Armenian and the Armenian” ends with the following resonating line: “For when two of them [Armenians] meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” Saroyan clearly knew a great secret-a secret that has shined itself upon many small cities in the Diaspora. When one Armenian moves into town, see if he/she will not search for another Armenian, and together, create an Armenian community.

One of the strongest Armenian communities in the south is located in the heart of Music City, USA. Nashville is home to country and Christian music, the replica of the Parthenon, and the Tennessee Titans. You can also find about fifty Armenian families in Nashville who come together once a month on Sundays at the Church of Advent to attend Soorp Badarak (Divine Liturgy) and to later dine together with an Armenian feast.

How did Armenians come together in Nashville, TN and why Nashville? Well, even Rev. Father Tateos Abdalian is not sure of the latter question, but one thing is certain: without the help and dedication of three amazing women, the Armenian Church in Nashville, which is part of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of20America, would have not flourished so eloquently.

Imagine moving into a new city and yearning to find Armenians. How far would you go?
Back in the 90’s, popular social networking websites like Facebook were not as readily available. Things were done via white and yellow pages. In 1996, Helen Fakhoorian, Alla Foliyev, and Nancy Fox flipped through thousands of white pages looking for last names ending in “ian” and “yan”. The search was successful in that they found many last names. However, this white page search extravaganza was even more memorable with all the stories that followed it. One of the funniest calls they placed ended with Helen encouraging the man on the other line to attend the Armenian service when towards the end of the conversation he interrupted and simply said: “But I’m Turkish.”

In the beginning, many of the members were Armenians from Baku, Azerbaijan=2 0who were unaware of the Armenian customs and traditions that surrounded an Armenian Badark. However, many of these men and women from Baku were strong individuals in that they never gave up their Faith despite being repressed by the Azerbaijani government. Many of these families were also refugees who were placed in Nashville’s projects and received little support from the projects. When Helen was notified of many Armenians being placed in the projects, she decided to take matters into her own hands and one family at a time placed them into apartments and drove them around to look for jobs.

Within the first few years, Helen, Alla, and Nancy had gathered 30 families and had collected enough donation money from the Armenians to be able to reserve a small church and have Badark once a year. The Father at that time performed numerous Genoonks (baptism) for Armenians ranging from newborns to 50-year olds (with Helen’s husband standing in as Kavor Godfather to many of these children) and engagements Neshans. Day by the day the Armenian Faith was rejuvenated in their lives and the Armenian Church in Nashville started to flourish.

Helen Fakhoorian explains that the little things-like when the owner of the International market in Nashville would direct Armenians who shopped there to contact her-helped the Armenian community come together. She also explains that a lot of the Armenians who came from various places like Azerbaijan, Iraq, Iran, Armenia, Russia, Romania, and Turkey helped tremendously by providing food and service for the after-Badark feast.

Recently, the Nashville Armenian community was blessed to have Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Primate of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America, visit their parish. Archibishop Barsamian arrived in Nashville just in time for Valentine’s Day and was greeted at the airport by parish council members with bread and salt. Bread and salt symbolizes hospitality and eating a man’s bread and salt creates a sacred bond between the guest and host. The Armenian community in Nashville celebrated a reception in honor of Archbishop’s visit to Nashville on the night of Valentine’s Day where the pokreegner little one’s asked Archbishop Barsamian “Can we have service every week instead of once a month?”

The Armenian Church meets once a month to celebrate Badarak and with the dedication from the parish members, want to extend service to once a week so the pokreegner can come together each Sunday to learn about the Armenian Church and then attend Badarak.

In addition, the Armenian community in Nashville is hoping to one day have their own Armenian church of worship. Again, with the dedication from their tremendously dedicated members and parish council, this too will happen soon.
The Armenian community in Nashville, TN also plans socials. Recent trips to Percy Priest Lake and holiday festivities like Christmas brought together Armenians from Bowling Green, KY and Memphis, TN.

My experience in Nashville has been interesting. I have met many Armenians from Armenia who are currently studying at Tennessee Tech (what we call study abroad) and even Armenians who used to live in Glendale, CA. A good friend of mine once told me that I should start an Armenian Student Association (ASA) at the college here in Nashville, TN…that all it took was another Armenian to start one. I think Saroyan, the Armenian Church in Nashville, and my friend were precise---it only takes another Armenian to start something great.