Candidates for Assembly Officers

One of the first items on the Assembly agenda is the election of officers for the Assembly: chairman, English-language secretary, and Armenian-language secretary.

Candidates for Assembly chairman include Thomas Ashbahian of St. Leon Church of Fair Lawn, NJ; and Van Krikorian of the St. Gregory the Enlightener Church of White Plains, NY.

Ashbahian, an architect in private practice, has been chairman for the past three assemblies. A member of the Ararat Center Advisory Board, he has also served his local parish as a parish council member and Sunday school teacher.

Krikorian, president of the Global Gold Corporation and professor of law at Pace University School of Law, has served as a delegate since 1999 and was vice chairman of the 2004 Assembly. A former member of his parish council, he also served in the National Ecclesiastical Assembly in Etchmiadzin in 1999.

Candidates for English-language secretary include Anna Marie Norehad of the St. James Church of Evanston, IL; and Yn. Rosalie Papazian of the St. John Church of Southfield, MI.

Norehad, a retired school teacher, has been her parish organist since 1955 and a choir member since 1945. A former parish council member and chairperson, she has been a delegate since 1993. She served as a delegate at the National Ecclesiastical Assembly in Yerevan in 1999.

Yn. Papazian is a retired school teacher who has also taught in Sunday Schools for more than 50 years. In the past she served as parish newsletter editor and was secretary for the Women's Guild and Choir Association assemblies.

Candidates for the Armenian-language secretary include Fr. Vazken Karayan of the Holy Cross Church of Union City, NJ; and Fr. Simeon Odabashian of the Sts. Sahag and Mesrob Church of Providence, RI, who began work in Providence last year after serving as coordinator of the Diocesan Mission Parish Program for several years.