STATEMENT

We officially communicate that the former Pastor of St. Gregory the Illuminator Armenian Church of Philadelphia, Rev. Fr. Torkom Chorbajian, in a letter addressed to the Prelate of the Eastern Prelacy and dated December 15, 2023  communicated his decision to cease to serve as a priest in the Armenian Apostolic Church after January 14, 2024. Pursuant to this, His Holiness Catholicos Aram I, in agreement to the request by the Prelate and the Religious Council, defrocked Fr. Torkom with an official letter dated January 3, 2024. The defrocked priest will henceforward be known by his lay name of Murad Chorbajian.     

SECRETARIAT
OF THE EASTERN PRELACY  

NB. Murad Chorbajian (formerly Rev. Fr. Torkom) informed in the abovementioned letter of December 15, 2023 that he considered his service to the Armenian Church incompatible with his faith and conscience, and during his meeting of December 27, 2023, with the Prelate he asserted that he did not have any immediate plans. Now it is disclosed that he had covertly applied last June to Westminster Seminary (California), where he was admitted and will soon start his master’s studies.