+Checkemian + Martin + MacLaglen

Founders of our Free Protestant Church of England 1897

Free Protestant Episcopal Church
This church was established in England on 2 November 1897 by a union of several small British episcopates that had been established in the 1870s in reaction to the rising Anglo-Catholicism of the mother Church of England. You can find out more at the web site.

Lord Leon Checkemian arrived in England in 1885 . He appears to have made his first ecclesiastical contacts with Anglicans as he quoted a letter from Dr. Temple, Bishop of London, dated 4 June 1886 stating that as he had not invited him to London, he could not be expected to maintain him.
The Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr. Edward White Benson) was able to offer little practical support. Checkemian was to complain bitterly of the "cruel" way in which they had treated him in England, observing that "God made their hearts harder than stones." He subsequently found a warmer reception among Scottish Presbyterians, notably with the Rev’d J.G. Cunningham of St. Luke’s Free Church, Edinburgh. They made their own enquiries about his background as we hear that Cunningham "sent out Dr. Checkemian’s Letters of Orders (which are in Armenian language) to a friend of his in Constantinople, who made local enquiries and found that they were correct as stated. The ‘letters’ were returned and are now in possession of Dr. Checkemian." In reporting this, Henry William Stewart, Rector & Rural Dean of Knockbreda, in the Church of Ireland’s Diocese of Down, affirmed "I have seen the document and the seal but of course cannot read them." In 1889 he is reported to have been preaching in the Presbyterian Churches of Belfast, notably Berry Street Church and St. Enoch’s Church, Belfast and it was noted that "He enjoys the confidence of and is warmly recommended by the most eminent men in the Presbyterian Church of Scotland."
In 1890 he was still preaching and lecturing in Belfast as Stewart noted, "He can now speak English fairly well and he hopes to become a naturalized English subject before he goes back to the East.
" It was at this time that he was taken up by Archbishop Plunket, Anglican Archbishop of Dublin, as Stewart notes that Checkemian was still in Belfast on 5 September 1890 and had visited the Archbishop. Stewart had a high opinion of him, "I believe him to be a sincere man – and to be a man capable of exercising a powerful influence over others ... It is no doubt an ambitious undertaking, but he is evidently a man of great energy and perseverance."
Archbishop Plunket dreamt of weakening the power of the Church of Rome by promoting Reformed Episcopal Churches among indigenous Christians outside the immediate sphere of influence of Anglicanism. He took as his basis the decision of the 1878 Lambeth Conference to make a "solemn protest against usurpations of the See of Rome" and an undertaking that "All sympathy is due from the Anglican communion to the churches and individuals protesting against these errors and labouring it may be under special difficulties from the assaults of unbelief as well as from the pretensions of Rome." He received Checkemian into the Church of Ireland and on 4 November 1890 granted him a General Licence in his own diocese of Dublin.
Another license, issued from Dublin on 25 May 1891, gives a much fuller picture of Archbishop Plunket’s scheme. He was clearly satisfied with Checkemian’s adherence to the Reformed doctrines, "You have duly signified to us in writing your hearty assent to the Doctrine of the Church of Ireland and of the other churches of the Anglican communion and your intention to teach nothing contrary to the same and have moreover stated that whatever public services you may be called upon to hold will be ordered so far as circumstances will permit after the model of the Books of Common Prayer used by the churches of the said communion."
Checkemian had obviously suggested that where he has trodden, others will follow, as Plunket observes that, "A large number of your fellow countrymen together with yourself have renounced your allegiance to the Church of Rome and have entreated you to visit your native country and to minister amongst them in the exercise of your office as a priest in the Church of God."

It is clear that Plunket saw himself as giving provisional episcopal oversight to what he hoped would be a future self-governing independent episcopal community:
"You in accordance with what you consider the usage of the Primitive Church desire to exercise your priestly office under due episcopal sanction and supervision pending the more complete organisation of those among whom you propose to labour and until such time as you may obtain legitimate source have appealed to us for whatever help in the above mentioned direction it may be in our power to bestow" and went on to "provisionally … authorise you to exercise your office of priest in the Old Catholic Armenian community wherein you have been requested to minister and we do hereby offer to you such provisional episcopal oversight as you may require in the exercise of that office."
In addition Plunket provided Checkemian with a formal Testimonial, which the latter had printed and widely circulated. This expanded the points covered in the Archbishop’s licence:
       "He is not undertaking this duty for the purpose of winning our adherents to the Anglican Communion, or to any branch of that body. He is merely responding to a call from some among his own people, who, in obedience to their own religious convictions, and in the exercise of their own religious liberty, have spontaneously sought for his ministry. As to what may become necessary in the way of future Church organisation, he does not seem – so far as I can judge – to have formed as yet any definite resolve. His present desire is simply to preach the Gospel, leaving the result in God’s hand, and awaiting the indication of his will.
       Meanwhile, however, should any designation of his present position be called for, he would, I believe, prefer that he and those who have sought his ministry, should be regarded as ‘ARMENIAN OLD CATHOLICS’ – in other words, as a body of reformers who (in common with those bearing the same title in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Spain and Portugal) repudiate the dangerous innovations and intrusive claims of the Church of Rome, but who, nevertheless, hold fast to what they consider old, and true, and scriptural, in the teaching and practice of the early Church of Christ.
        As regards the Native Armenian Church, the attitude of Dr. Checkemian is somewhat different, and may, I think be described as follows:
        Admitting, as he does, that the charge of monophysite heresy brought against that church has been unduly magnified, he yet deplores the many erroneous doctrines and superstitious usages, such as the veneration of ‘ikons’, the invocation of saints, and the cultus of the Blessed Virgin – which unfortunately prevail within it at the present time.
        On the other hand, he remembers that the Armenian Church has never so yielded to Papal usurpation, or so committed itself to any irrevocable formulation of error as to preclude a return to primitive purity and truth. He recognises, moreover, the indubitable claims which, but for the present degenerate conditions, it would have, as a National Church, on the allegiance of the people of the land.
While, therefore, he cannot but sympathize with those among its members who are compelled to seek elsewhere for the spiritual food which the Armenian Church, as at present circumstanced, so lamentably fails to supply, he would most gladly welcome, and as far as possible encourage, any movement tending to internal reform whereby the many and diverse religious bodies throughout Armenia, which now stand aloof from that Church and from one another, might yet be presented with a safe and permanent basis of reunion within its ancient fold."
It appears doubtful that Checkemian ever returned home to put these ideas to the test. The outbreak of renewed serious persecution of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, which began with the Sassoun Uprising of 1894, would have been a strong deterrent.
In the meantime Checkemian had moved to London. We know that he was living there from 23 June 1896 until 4 January 1901, when he moved to Edinburgh. It was at this time that he came into contact with a number of bishops of independent jurisdictions and it was through these contacts that he probably resolved to follow through Plunket’s vision by establishing his own church. One of these was Alfred Spencer Richardson, who had been consecrated bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church at Philadelphia in 1879. This Church is sometimes referred to as ‘The Cummins Schism’ after its founder, George David Cummins (1822-1876), Assistant Bishop of Kentucky, who separated from the Episcopal Church in America "on the old evangelical basis, now and ever … to keep this Church upon the platform of the Reformation." Another contact was Mar Theophilus (Stevens), Patriarch of the Ancient British Church, which traced its apostolic succession to the Syrian Orthodox Church through Bishop Julius Ferrette (1828-1904). There was clearly common ground here as both Checkemian and Mar Theophilus had a distant, but common episcopal ancestry from Oriental Orthodox churches. They decided to cooperate together.

On 2 November 1897 at St. Stephen’s Church, East Ham, Checkemian presided at the episcopal consecration of Andries Caarel Albertus MacLaglen as Colonial Missionary Bishop in Cape Colony, South Africa. He was also given the title of ‘Titular Bishop of Claremont of the Free Protestant Church of England’ which had just been founded with Checkemian as its first Archbishop. Checkemian was assisted by three bishops.  "To settle any doubt of his status, Bishop Stevens offered his assistance and consecrated Checkemian bishop."
 Although he resided at 122 George Street, Edinburgh from 4 January until 26 June 1901 he signed his application for naturalisation as a British citizen in Glasgow on the latter date, having proved his residency in the United Kingdom for an unbroken period of five years and three days. His referees were all regarded as "exceptionally" respectable and responsible persons, as they comprised Dr. Cunningham and the elders of his church, "of which applicant became a member in 1891, and they have known him since then." The Naturalization Certificate was duly granted on 14 August 1901 with the Oath of Allegiance taken on 17 August 1901.
Checkemian passed his responsibilities to Mar Theophilus within a few years of their union. We know that he subsequently contracted marriage as when he died at his home at 72, High Street, Tunbridge Wells, Kent on 3 December 1920 of a cerebral haemorrhage, his widow Amelia Robina Checkemian was present. Leon Checkemian was buried in the consecrated section of Turnbridge Wells Borough Cemetery in Grave No. B-6-263.

The reformed episcopacy provided by Anglicanism was clearly more congenial. Checkemian’s contacts with Presbyterians and other non-episcopal Protestant groups do not suggest any loss of belief in traditional ministry, especially as he himself subsequently submitted to episcopal ordination. A contemporary account of him officiating refers to his "weighty" robes, ornate pastoral staff and with "the mitre an enormous and awe-inspiring spectacle." If neither considered apostolic succession as of the esse of the church, they both at least considered it as of the bene esse.
The Anglican Church in the nineteenth century was closely identified with the power and prestige of the British Empire. It was a misleading picture, however, as so much depended on the fickle changes of British interests abroad and the equally volatile generosity of public opinion at home. ‘Taken up’ by one hierarch, they were as easily ‘dropped’ by the next who was wary of assuming the commitments of his predecessors. One of them was Frederick Temple ! Isolated in an essentially hostile society, Checkemian, having once tasted the fruits of religious freedom in the West, could never return back to his roots. Our founders pinned their hopes on a Church which eventually failed them because it lacked the will to carry forward a vision set in progress without the consensus and support necessary to bring it to maturity.

Note:1894-1897 Beginn der türkischen Massaker an Armeniern innerhalb des Osmanischen Reiches auf Veranlassung von Abdul Hamid. Allein 1896 fanden ca. 200000 Armenier den Tod. In der Zwischenzeit hatten auch die Russen den Armeniern die eigenen Sprache, die eigenen Schulen und Kirchen verboten.
Während des 19. Jahrhunderts sowie während und unmittelbar nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg wuchs die Jerusalemer armenische Gemeinde durch die Aufnahme der Überlebenden der Massaker in Anatolien, insbesondere derjenigen von 1915.

1. Hälfte des 20. Jahrhundert: Der Völkermord am armenischen Volk

1909-1921, ab 1909 in Kilikien, 1914-1915 in der ganzen Türkei, dann vor allem zwischen 1915 und 1918: Holocaust am armenischen Volk mit insgesamt über 1,5 Millionen Tötungen und Vertreibungen, davon während der Kriegszeit 800000 Tote und über 200000 Flüchtlinge allein nach Rußland, nachdem Armenien zum Schlachtfeld des Krieges zwischen der Türkei und Rußland wurde. Infolgedessen ist das Patriarchat von Istanbul beinahe ausgestorben.

1915:

Besonders schlimmer Genozid: Ein besonderer Gedenktag ist jedoch der 24. April.