On November 21, 2015, a lesson of history in “Surb Grigor Narekatsi” (“St. Gregory the Narekatsi”) one-day Armenian school was not as usual held in Vardan Jinishyan Hall of the Hayartun Center, but it took place in the open air, in the yard of Saint Gevorg Church of Tbilisi. The topic of the lesson was the Armenian churches and Saint George Cathedral in particular. On the initiative of the Head of the Educational Department of the Diocese, Yevgenia Markosyan and the Youth Department Director, Valery Badalyan, under the arches of the church the students listened to a story told by a teacher of Armenian Tamara Gaboyan and a teacher of history Revik Karapetyan about how the Saint Gevorg Church was founded, the role of the Church in the life of Tbilisi Armenians and the church activities. The students were impressed both by the beauty and splendor of the Armenian cathedral, built by Prince Umek in the 13th century, which was a favorite place of worship of Tbilisi Armenians for centuries.

The group was joined by Dn. Gevorg Antonyan, he told the participants of the lesson in the open air about the work undertaken by the Foundation for Reconstruction of St. George Cathedral, within the framework of the Saint George Cathedral restoration project initiated by IDeA Foundation two years ago, which resulted in renovated and decently shaped cathedral that heeds to our requests and prayers.

The Primate of the Armenian Diocese in Georgia, His Grace Bishop Vazgen Mirzakhanyan blessed the students of the “Surb Grigor Narekatsi” (“Saint Gregory of Narek”) Saturday School and highly appreciated the initiative taken by the Youth and Educational Departments. The Bishop highlighted the existence of abovementioned church in the brotherly Georgian land and urged to give similar lessons in the open air to the students of other groups at the Hayartun Center.