President Serzh Sargsyan stressed the importance of the church-state relations, especially “at the current historical stage for the country”, as he spoke before participants of the third meeting, at the Mother See of Holy Echmiadzin Monday, of top clerical representatives of the Armenian Apostolic Church’s worldwide dioceses.

“Let’s admit it. The regulation of church-state relations is not easy. The church must not interfere with the state’s affairs and the state must not interfere with the church’s affairs. This simple formula, however, is difficult to apply in life, because in our case it is nearly impossible to distinguish the border where our spiritual culture ends and where our secular culture, in particular political culture, begins,” said Sargsyan. “I think that today we are close to the golden mean… Time, of course, will make its unavoidable corrections in this sphere, but in essence we are on the right path. State structures are ready to continue and deepen this cooperation that already yields its positive results.”