By the Pontifical Order of His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, His Grace Bishop Haykazun Najarian, has resigned his service as the Pontifical Legate of Central Europe and Sweden, and as of 1 January, 2013 His Grace will serve as the Primate of the Armenian Diocese in Australian and New Zealand.
His Grace Bishop Haigazun Najarian (baptismal name Vrej) was born in 1952, in Aleppo, Syria. He received his primary education at the Vahan Tekeyan Elementary School in Beirut, and graduated in 1964. He continued his education in the Hovakimian-Manoukian secondary school in Beirut and graduated in 1967.
In 1973, in Holy Etchmiadzin, he was ordained to the diaconate by His Eminence Archbishop Husik Santurian, and in 1975, at the St. Sarkis Church in London, he was ordained as a celibate priest by His Eminence Archbishop Nerses Pozapalian.
He continued his higher education at the St. Augustine of Canterbury School in England where he studied Pastoral Theology from 1974 to 1975. In 1975 he continued his education at the King’s College in London and graduated in 1978. He received a Bachelor’s Degree in Theology (BD). While serving in New York, he entered the University of Columbia in 1992 and graduated in 1993, receiving a Masters degree (MA) in History.
He moved to Sweden in 2010, and by Pontifical Order of His Holiness Karekin II, served as Pontifical Legate of Central Europe and Sweden until December 2012. On 6 November, 2011 he was consecrated as a Bishop by His Holiness Karekin II, in the Mother Cathedral of Holy Etchmiadzin.
We congratulate Bishop Najarian on the new appointment, and pray for the continued fruitfulness of his ministry.
