The shared center — held across the tradition
A nation was baptised, not a congregation.
Armenia declared itself Christian around 301 under King Trdat III, before any other state did. The church that resulted has never been one institution among others in Armenian life; when there was no Armenian state, and for most of the last sixteen centuries there was not, the catholicosate was the thing that held the nation's legal and educational life together.
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Held by most — broad, but not universal
One church, two thrones.
The Catholicos of All Armenians sits at Etchmiadzin and the Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia at Antelias in Lebanon. Both consecrate bishops and bless the Muron; Etchmiadzin holds primacy of honour. The arrangement is medieval in origin, hardened by the Cold War, and it still produces jurisdictional quarrels in the diaspora — most visibly in North America, where two parallel dioceses cover the same cities.
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