The lack of clergymen in the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople has become a problem for the Armenian community of Istanbul.

Istanbul-based Armenian newspaper Agos has touched on the statement of the General Vicar of Patriarch Aram Ateşyan, according to whom three more clergymen have terminated their spiritual service for different reasons.

This fact made Agos study the process of raising religious officials. The newspaper journalists talked on this topic to one of the clergymen of the Constantinople Patriarchate, High Priest Zakeos Ohanyan.

The latter noted that “a church without a seminary school is like a bird missing a wing.”

He also stressed that when someone wants to be a cleric, he should go to Etchmiadzin, Jerusalem or Beirut to receive education.