The Church Among the Broken Stones

Two weeks ago, while I was in Van preparing to leave the hotel for our pilgrimage to Varagavank, I felt a quiet prompting: “Take your Banageh with you.” The Banageh, or Enkolpion, is the episcopal medallion bearing the image of the Holy Mother of God holding the Christ Child.

While traveling in Turkey, I had generally kept visible religious symbols discreet. So instead of wearing it, I slipped it into my pocket and went to join our pilgrims. I did not know why I felt I should bring it.

When we arrived at Varagavank, once one of the great spiritual centers of Vaspuragan, we made our way into what remained of the sanctuary. I walked toward the place where generations of priests had once stood before the altar and offered the Badarak. But the altar was gone. The sacred images were gone. The sanctuary was bare.

As our pilgrims gathered around me for prayer, I reached into my pocket, took out the Banageh, and placed it around my neck. Then I turned toward them to begin.

And suddenly, I could not speak.

Emotion overcame me as I realized that the image once missing from that sanctuary—the Holy Mother holding the Christ Child—was now resting upon my chest as I stood where the altar had once been.

Our pilgrims stood quietly around me. No altar. No candles. No icons on the walls. And yet, for those few moments, something sacred had returned to that wounded sanctuary. We were praying there again. Varagavank was the Church again.

And in that instant, the words of Scripture came alive: “Like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house” (1 Peter 2:5). Perhaps that is what we were in that moment, living stones gathered among the broken stones.

Buildings may be damaged, altars may be stripped, but the Church lives wherever faithful hearts carry Christ. What God has placed within us—His love, His grace, His sacred presence—can turn even the emptiest ruin into light.

We may not be able to restore every broken stone or recover everything history has taken. But together, we can carry Christ into wounded homes, forgotten sanctuaries, painful memories, and hearts that have grown empty.

Where Christ is carried, where prayer is offered, and where faithful hearts gather, the Church lives again.