Today I went to the Armenian Church of the Three Altars in Beyoğlu, a church that Melissa said "wouldn't find it weird if I went." I entered the fish market (luckily no one wants to buy fish at 10AM on a Sunday, so there weren't any out yet) and turned right at two giant doors:
Behind these doors was a narrow courtyard and the church:
A smartly dressed man sitting by himself told me it was an Armenian Church. I nodded and went inside. Some men were singing, but no one was in the pews. I sat in the back:
It took a while for more people to come in, and up until about 10:40, more choir members (mostly men, but eventually three women as well) came and joined in. Most everything was conducted facing the front, but while they were singing, the choir members also chatted amongst themselves and with the other people coming in. I was pointed at a few times. Judging by where everyone else was sitting (though the largest number of people in the pews at one time was only 15), I began to worry that I had sat on the men's side of the church. I eventually moved to the other side, but towards the end, a couple finally came and sat together, so I'm pretty sure the pews weren't separated by gender.
There was a break a little before 11. I'm not sure if the music I heard was part of an introit or just rehearsing. But when the curtain in front was opened to reveal the central altar (though it was closed again and opened a few times throughout the service), the priest dressed in white and gold came out and the music I recognized began. I'm pretty sure I sat through the entire Divine Liturgy, which is one thing when it's playing in the background while you're doing homework, and another thing when you're sitting in the back of a church utterly confused. Most people who came stayed only for a little bit; lighting a candle, crossing themselves, sitting and standing in the pews and then leaving. The man I'd met outside came in a couple times to extinguish the candles that had burned almost all the way down.
Armenian chant is often sung in harmony, which is one of the reasons I think it's so cool. The recording I have of the Divine Liturgy is three men, but this church had a larger choir with women. At one point towards the beginning, there was an exchange between a single male voice and a single female voice. The harmony was a little hard to hear, and I sometimes confused it with traffic noises outside, but the main male voice was beautiful. Most of the male Armenian voices I've heard on liturgical recordings sound a little like an opera singer trying to sing Arab music. This time was no exception.
I don't have the correct terms for anything, but what seemed to be altar boys had these giant poles with gold sun-looking things on top. They would shake them to make high metal rattling noises at certain points throughout the service. That's a horrible way to describe it, because it actually sounded very pretty. The incense-swinging (sorry, I promise I'll find actual terms) was sort of "in time," because it was always to the same rhythm, and often two people did it in unison. In short, the music sounded pretty percussive, whether or not those aspects were actually supposed to be "music."
Oh! And I got communion! No one ever serves Presbyterians communion. An old man walked up to me and handed me what seemed like a piece of those pancakes that come with Mu Shu pork. He made an eating motion, so I'm pretty sure I was allowed.
At the very end of the service a very northern-European looking man and a black woman walked in. I breathed a sigh of relief, because there's no way those two were Armenian. It was nice to know I wasn't the only one who had stopped by out of curiosity.
So yes, this was my first experience at an Armenian church. I'm a little scared to go back again without Melissa (who was out of town this weekend), but all in all I liked it.
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