Regarding the uncanonical omission of the names of the Catholicos of All Armenians and the Primate of the Diocese during the Holy Liturgy. The Throne of the Throne has issued a statement on this matter.
The mention of the names of the Patriarch and the Diocesan Primate, or Bishop, during the Divine Liturgy has the following fundamental and important meanings:
A. ritual, through which the sacrament of the Divine Liturgy and the Liturgical Order are fully expressed, as an official sacred document approved by the Church.
B. is an ecclesiastical-canonical law, establishing the local community, united around the bread and cup of the Divine Liturgy, as part of the Universal Church, whose spiritual leader is the bishop, and the officiating priest or bishop establishes his ecclesiastical-canonical unity with the Mother Church and its leader, the Patriarch.
The first evidence of the mention of a bishop’s name during the Divine Liturgy in the Armenian Apostolic Church is found in the commentary of Khosrov Adzevatsi, a liturgist of the Armenian Church, dating back to the 10th century. According to Khosrov Adzevatsi, the mention of the bishop’s name is important because the bishop is the overseer of Orthodox teaching, and the priest thereby confirms the mentoring authority received from him and the celebration of the Divine Liturgy in accordance with Orthodox teaching.
The deliberate or intentional omission of the names of the archbishop and bishop by a priest not only contradicts the centuries-old ritual canon of the universal Church but also distorts the full understanding of the sacrament of the Holy Liturgy.
The mention of the aforementioned names during the Holy Liturgy makes the united Church part of the apostolic and universal Church. Omitting the names of the archbishop and prelate by a priest means that:
• the priest calls into question the Holy Liturgy, celebrated on the basis of the Orthodox faith, since the bishop and archbishop are the overseers of Orthodoxy;
• he excludes himself from ecclesiastical unity;
• he rejects the authority of the head of the Church.