In an age when new churches can be as boxy and boring as shopping malls, the members of St. Gregory the Illuminator longed for arches.
They craved warm-hued stone dug from quarries in their ancestors' Armenia. While other growing parishes settled for former banks or castoff older churches, this parish housed in a former Coca-Cola distribution center wanted a building all its own -- a brand-new structure but one that would look centuries old.
Now, the graceful dome of their new stone-walled church rises 85 feet above the auto parts stores of Pasadena's Colorado Boulevard, a silhouette that recalls the skyline of Athens or Cairo.
Today at noon, church leaders will formally consecrate the church with a ceremony known as Navagadik. Festivities began Saturday evening with the opening of the church's carved walnut doors as priests chanted the Armenian liturgy and incense wafted upward.
Member Arthur Kokozian, whose parents brought him to the parish in 1971 when he was 11 months old, said he felt goose bumps as he heard the singing.
"It's part of our DNA," he said.
The story of this church says much about the history of the burgeoning Armenian religious community in the American Southwest and why, for many of its members, church architecture matters so much.
As those members put the finishing touches on the new St. Gregory the Illuminator Armenian Apostolic Church, they are rejoicing in the triumph of tradition: a marble-framed baptismal font, jewel-toned stained-glass windows and particularly the rounded arches both outside the church and setting off its glowing cream interior.
"We didn't want a box. We wanted arches," said project manager Hampo Nazerian, motioning at the windows and dome.
"They're inviting, they're warm, not squared or cold. Arches are like arms outstretched," said longtime volunteer Marguerite Hougasian, whose father helped start the Pasadena parish in 1947. The new church's Old World style reflects the importance of tradition in the 1,700-year-old Armenian faith, she said. "It's a way of strengthening and holding to the faith, keeping us bonded to our belief."
The building has a sturdy copper roof and drain pipes. Although early designs for the steel-framed church called for stucco walls, members later decided on an exterior of stone ordered from Armenia, in Southwestern Asia east of Turkey.
