Celebration Luncheon to Honor Interim Ministry July 31, 2011

California’s oldest Armenian Church will mark its 114th Anniversary with a special luncheon tribute to its Interim Associate Pastor and his family.
The First Armenian Presbyterian Church of Fresno will celebrate the ministry of Associate Pastor Eric Eugene Thompson, his wife Janet, and their children Seth, Grace and Noah, at a 1 p.m. luncheon on Sunday, July 31, 2011.
The celebration luncheon will take place at the Church Fellowship Hall, 430 South First Street at historic Huntington Boulevard near Downtown Fresno. Tickets for the multi-course meal are $10 per adult and $5 per child ages 12 and younger. Tickets and program information are available by calling Edward Saliba at (559) 323-5502.
A native of Northern California, Reverend Thompson grew up in Fremont and was active in the leadership of the Centerville Presbyterian Church, an East Bay house of worship founded shortly after California’s admission to the Union. He completed coursework at Ohlone Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in speech communication from San Jose State University.
In 1996, Reverend Thompson earned a Master of Divinity Degree from Pasadena’s Fuller Theological Seminary, a Christian graduate institution embracing Schools of Theology, Psychology, and Intercultural Studies.
Upon graduation, Reverend Thompson served as for two years as Pastoral Intern at First Presbyterian Church in Colusa, California, part of the Sierra Mission Partnership of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). From 2000 to 2005 he served as pastor of the Center Presbyterian Church of Seaton in northwestern Illinois and as Commissioner of the Synod of Lincoln Trials.
In the fall of 2005, Reverend Thompson accepted a call as Associate Pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Fresno, where his duties included youth, missions, evangelism, and Christian Education.
In September 2010, Reverend Thompson entered the Interim Associate Pastorate of FAPC, where he assisted regularly in worship, taught Men’s and College & Career Bible studies, and oversaw the autumn Harvest Festival for children, among many other duties. Janet Thompson served as Executive Director of the Congregation’s 2011 Vacation Bible School, “Soul Survivor Island,” and actively served in Children’s Ministries.
Forty immigrants from Marsovan chartered FAPC in a rented Fresno hall on July 25, 1897. The congregation formally joined the family of Presbyterian Churches in October of that same year.
The boyhood church of filmmaker J. Michael Hagopian and 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 Church, Reverend Mike Mekredijian is the incoming Associate Pastor, Philip Garo, Jr. is the incoming Director of Youth and Children’s Ministries, and Edward Saliba is the General Chair of the Celebration Luncheon Committee.
FAPC is a member congregation of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church/Presbytery of the Pacific and the Armenian Evangelical Union of North America, an ecclesiastical confederation of Armenian Protestant churches, missions, and fellowships in the United States and Dominion of Canada. The 2011 theme of the congregation is “A New Community.”