Last year 7 th – Day Adventist Church celebrated its 100 th anniversary. This is one of the churches of all Armenian religious organizations that has a small number of community and has a problem of integration.

Rafael Movsisyan, who represents Armenian community of New Apostolic Church once believed in God differently. He regularly went to church, lit a candle, was baptized, as the members of the Apostolic Church . Only in 90s, he was involved in another religious organization and became a bishop. “The faith of our Church is that we wait for the advent of Jesus”-says the bishop.

“There is no interchurch life in Armenia as there are not religious minorities in Armenia ”. The head of the Armenian Apostolic Church-Shirak diocese Michael bishop Ajapahyan explains his opinion saying that in Armenia there is not for example, Georgian Church, Luther church or Catholic one. According to the bishop, Armenian Apostolic Church does not have sister churches as some of the existing ones are elements separated from the Armenian Apostolic Church and they are considered daughter churches such as the Evangelical and Catholic churches.

After the end of this secular system, those who will be faithful Jehovah witnesses till the end of their life will be saved. “Jehovah Witnesses” religious organization believes that the existing system will soon collapse. The way to escape it is not a piece of bread but is the spiritual food and worshiping God. 160-170 people in Vanadzor live with this hope. Their main goal is the preaching which means to inform people about the missions and kingdom of God by “baptizing them by the name of Father, God and Holy Spirit”. “The best thing a Christian must do is the spiritual support”-says Gevorg Ananikyan, one of the priests of this organization in Vanadzor.

In “Our Lady of Armenia Boghossian Educational Center” of Gyumri 50 children get Christian education. The educational center belongs to the Catholic Church, which a little differs from the protestant faith and is closer to the Anglican Church. The head of the center whom everyone calls Sister Arusyak, can't say clearly how many of their pupils represent Armenian Apostolic and how many Catholic Church. Here the children are educated according to the principles of apostolic religion, get them familiar with their own religion, so that they do not grow ignorant and are able to differentiate the religion offered to them and keep the faith. Sister Arusyak attaches importance to the education of youth for the formation of freethinking. “A lot of time is necessary for changing some values, mentality”- she says and points out the phenomena left from the Soviet period.

In order to spread the commandments of Jesus Christ the church “Kyanki Khosk” (“Speech of Life”) was created in Armenia 16 years ago. According to the representative of the organization Arthur Tonoyan, it is an Armenian phenomenon in the field of religious organizations in Armenia and exists only in Armenia .

Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Vanadzor undertakes a project on religious minorities' roundtables. The goal of this project is to arrive at a pluralistic society in Armenia in which there is a true freedom of religion. Through a series of meetings over the country, it is intended to increase the awareness in the Armenian society about the various religious convictions and create an atmosphere of tolerance and understanding whereby a variety of religion is viewed upon as an asset for the society.

The booklet was published within the framework of the project "Public Awareness Raising Campaign on Freedom of Religion in Armenia". The project was implemented with support from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. (Arm.)