Christopher Sheklian: Riches of Armenian Liturgy

Chris is an Assistant Professor of Religion in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Mississippi State University. He has served as Director of the Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center at the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America and has worked at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, the University of Michigan, St. Nersess Armenian Seminary, and Wesleyan University. Chris’s published work explores the role of liturgy and law in the lives of religious minorities, migration and emplacement, and the question of secularism in relation to religious minority rights. His first monograph is "Liturgical Rights: Armenian Minority Presence in Turkey."​​In this conversation, I spoke with Chris about the Armenian liturgy and its theological significance. We discussed the distinctions between liturgy and worship and the sensory fullness of Armenian practice. Our conversation also touched on how cultural and historical forces have shaped Armenian visual forms.