112th Annual Christmas Eve Observance December 24, 2009

The oldest Armenian Church in the Golden State will mark its 112th Advent Season in the San Joaquin Valley with a Christmas Eve praise service.
The First Armenian Presbyterian Church of Fresno will celebrate one century plus one decade plus two years of ministry with a Candlelight Service at 10 p.m. on Thursday, December 24, 2009.
The worship service will take place at the Church Campus, 430 South First Street, one block west of the Historic Huntington Boulevard Candlelight Christmas. The observance is free and open to the public. More details are available by calling (559) 237-6638 or e-mailing fapc@fapc.net.
The one-hour service will commemorate the birth of the Christ Child in Bethlehem of Judea and will include nativity readings from the Holy Bible, classic carols and choral selections, Advent Season prayers, and meditations and homilies in the English and Armenian languages.
Forty immigrants from Marsovan chartered the congregation in a rented Fresno hall on July 25, 1897. The congregation formally joined the family of Presbyterian Churches in October of that same year and celebrated its first Christmas in a rented hall.
The boyhood church of authors William Saroyan and A.I. Bezzerides, FAPC today is a multigenerational evangelical congregation drawn from the Old and New Worlds.
Reverend Mgrdich Melkonian is the Senior Pastor of the congregation, Reverend Aren Balabanian is the Associate Pastor, Shant Barsoumian, M.Div. is the pastoral intern, and Jane S. Bedrosian is Director of Music Ministries.
FAPC is a member congregation of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Armenian Evangelical Union of North America. The 2009 theme of the congregation is “All Things Are Possible with God.”

Official Website: http://www.fapc.net