Members of Waukegan’s St. Paul Armenian Apostolic Church were introduced to the Very Rev. Bayrour Shernezian over Easter weekend last April. He was invited by the church’s board and its pastor, Father Daron Stepanian, to help conduct the Holy Friday Candlelight Service.
A native of Beirut, he attended the Armenian Theological Seminary in Antelias, Lebanon, for eight years. A 2020 appointment led to becoming the seminary’s dean and also running an orphanage with 40 children of mixed backgrounds.
Now past 100 days, the combined American-Israeli forces continue military operations against Iran, albeit with a fragile ceasefire in place, according to news reports and Shernezian. However, Israel’s military is also waging a parallel campaign against Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, while targeting the infrastructure sites in Beirut.
With damaging air strikes in south Lebanon residential areas last week, Israeli leadership has maintained its position of seeking out militants. Rev. Shernezian has remained in contact with the congregation and the seminary to report on the ground realities of impacted civilian populations.
“As always is, it is a battlefield, unfortunately between powers against a small country, a very beautiful country, where there are different religious denominations living together,” Rev. Shernezian said. “There are Christians, Orthodox, Protestant, Evangelical, also Muslim denominations, Shiite, Sunni, Alawi, Druze…so, there is a religious diversity.
“We are also neighbors. Not everybody knows this picture of Lebanon. We never look at each other as strangers, just citizens of Lebanon.”
The bombardments have largely occurred in south Lebanon, near the border with Israel, and around Beirut, near the airport. More than one million people have migrated to the northern and eastern areas of the country in an effort to escape the shelling.
“They are on the streets; they live in their cars because they don’t have any place,” Shernezian said. “The government provided some schools, soccer fields, so they can put up tents, but we don’t know what their future is. Many people, because of the economic crisis, they lost everything, everything they had in banks, lost.
“What does it mean to live and work all your life, now comes time to enjoy your life, and suddenly, you have nothing in your bank, all is gone,” he said. “They can give it back to you, but at a very low rate…that means nothing to you.”
Stepanian said, “Families are being displaced because their homes were destroyed on the basis of militants hiding in the buildings. To do these things to innocent people is something that makes no sense.”
Shernezian said, “Many times, when they do bombardments, the Israelis leave messages to evacuate the area before the attack…but we never know when,” Shernezian said. “More than a million Lebanese from the south are emigrating to safe areas, and sometimes Israel bombs these places, saying a terrorist escaped there.
“People are afraid to welcome refugees, scared that someone is a target,” he said. “The most traumatizing thing is to always hear the bombardments. Our seminary…we hear it. It is not a big country. You can hear it, anywhere.”
He also points to the discouraging atmosphere for young people and their own dreams of a better life. “Even if war ends, they have no assurance…they appreciate life, and yet, people have hope. They want to start again, but this situation is not helping us. We always find Lebanon as a battlefield for different groups, as political authority.”
St. Paul board member, Arda Haroian Bowles, noted, “We need this kind of direct communication. It’s also a way of regeneration, appealing to young people with the truth and their own worth as human beings.”
