VERBATIM
REV. TAKOUHI DEMIRDJIAN-PETRO is the first Armenian minister to be
ordained by The United Church of Canada. She spoke to Trisha Elliott about being
a refugee to Canada and how her harrowing journey shaped her as a minister.
On living in wartorn Beirut: The civil war started in 1975. In 1978,
when I was 11, violence escalated between Israeli, Syrian and Lebanese armies. There was so much smoke from the bombings and
fires that we didn’t see the sun for 15 days. At the time, nine of us
lived in a one-bedroom apartment. During the bombings, we moved
into a small corridor of the apartment building with 15 neighbours.
The corridor was the width of a twin bed. There was no electricity. Whoever had food shared it. There are no words to express the
experience. You learn to live just one day at a time.
On her journey to Canada: In the summer of 1983, my mom insisted
that I go to the U.S. Embassy to get a visa to enter the United States.
I dreaded the idea as I had been refused at least seven times, but I
went. I got a visa that day but it expired in three months, so I had to
get out quickly. The Beirut airport was closed, and the other ways
to get out of Lebanon were dangerous. We prayed for a miracle.
My mother decided to take me to Damascus [Syria] through
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On how her experiences have
shaped her: My experiences have
given me a perspective on what is
important in life. I have learned
to travel light, to not be attached to
stuff, to remember that every day
is a gift. I believe miracles happen, but it’s a partnership. For
example, to get out of Lebanon,
it took responsibility and accountability on my mother’s part to say,
“Okay, let’s go.”
On the church: The Elijah story
says that God was not in the thunder and the fire but in the whisper.
Being obedient to the whisper is
key to the spiritual journey. I
hear people say that the church
is going nowhere. But if you
look at the word “nowhere”
and divide it differently, it reads
“now here.” The church is now
here. The church will never die
because God is alive. So what are
we going to do about it? How
do we be a part of the exciting
work God is doing? UCO
This interview has been condensed and edited.
Roger Sands/Arranel Studios
‘The insurgents let us go
because they thought Mom
was Muslim.’
the mountainous roads of Lebanon to get me on a plane to Los
Angeles. On the drive there, insurgents stopped us. There was no
air conditioning in the car, and
my mother had put a head covering over her ears to protect her
from the sun. The insurgents let us
go because they thought she was
Muslim. The driver turned around
and told my mother that her head
scarf had saved our lives. I don’t
know if I realized then how close
we had come to dying.
My mother had so much faith
and courage. . . . She convinced
me that we could do anything
together because God was with
us. When my mother died, she
had $3.25 in her pocket. Yet she
was the richest person I know.
I eventually arrived in Canada
in 1986. Everything I had was in
six suitcases. When we got to
Montreal, four of us (by then my
two sisters, my mother and me)
lived in a one-bedroom apartment
in Montreal. It felt luxurious.