Armenian Church Podcasts

I discovered that the former Der Hayr at my old church, Der Vasken Movesian, has not one, but two podcasts available on iTunes. One is called "The Next Step," and the other is called "Fr. Vasken's Sermons." These are new since the last time I searched for "Armenian" in the iTunes store, which is something I do periodically to see if there are any new and interesting Armenian music albums in the iTunes store.

I think this is terrific! I don't know Der Vasken very well (as I started going to my former church after he had already left), but everyone always spoke so highly of him; he was a much beloved priest there (the current priest there is great too, by the way, and I really like him a lot). I met Der Vasken after his trip to Rwanda, when he was going to different organizations and churches to show his slide show, talk about the Rwandan genocide, and how all Armenians need to be against all genocides, and just because we still have problems getting ours recognized doesn't mean that we should sit around and ignore it when genocides happen in other parts of the world, and he addressed Darfur in particular. Der Vasken is a person who makes an effort to reach out to others and show them what the Armenian Church is and can do, not just for Armenians, but as a beacon for all people, and I think that is really admirable. I am not surprised that if there is a priest out there who has a podcast, that it is Der Vasken.

On another iTunes note, you can also buy the Pimsleur series for both Eastern and Western Armenian, if you are so inclined.