"I've really felt the extravagant welcome," says FCC's new interim, the Rev. Nayiri Karjian.  "It's refreshing, and FCC people seem to know how to think, yet have a good sense of humor."
 

She's also enjoying Houston's warmer climate, after living in the North since 1982 when she arrived in the U.S. to begin studies at Lancaster Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania.  The story of how she arrived there is one of desire, opportunity, circumstances and, as Nayiri points out, "divine guidance."
 

Having moved with her family from Syria to Beirut, Lebanon, in 1981 Nayiri earned a B.A. in Christian Education from Haigazian University, then a Certificate in Theology from the Near East School of Theology.  Her uncle, a UCC minister in Philadelphia, while visiting Beirut, asked her if she would like to come to the U.S. to attend seminary.  Yes, she would.  The application process was launched.
 

So were rockets from Israel, and the 1982 war ended life as they knew it in Beirut.

Everything shut down – including mail service and most phone service.  Nayiri had been accepted by the school, which undoubtedly appreciated not only her scholastic record but also her fluency in English, studied since grade 2.  But she still needed to get the I-20 application form that would let her apply at a U.S. consulate or embassy for a student  visa, no longer an option in Beirut.
 

For safety, her family was staying in the basement of their building when her mother went up to their apartment and was there when the phone rang.  It was an uncle in Canada.  Mom asked him to call the Pennsylvania uncle to ask him to obtain the I-20 and mail it to Syria.
 

Nayiri arrived in Damascus one August day after the I-20 arrived.  She obtained the approval and was on a plane (with just one suitcase) in a week.  Her uncle met her at Kennedy, and five days later she was in school.
 

After School

Since obtaining a master's of divinity degree in 1985, Nayiri has served in five towns in four states, twice as an associate pastor, once as a pastor and twice as an interim, a specialty she prefers, because "you will more likely be an agent of change and growth."
 

During a sabbatical, she joined a group visiting historic Armenia, today's Turkey, to visit towns where their forefathers had lived.  "It was a spiritual and heart-warming experience," she says, "but sad as well, because of the Armenian Genocide."  (An event that former president Theodore Roosevelt characterized as "the greatest crime of the war," the Armenian Genocide probably received the most extensive press in 1915-16.  However, one historian points out that the persecution of Christian Armenians had been going on since the late 1800s and continued even after World War I had ended.)
 

After Work

Nayiri shared her love of reading in Easton, Connecticut by leading a book group at the town library.  She also loves travel, classical music, and chocolate.  Good chocolate.
 

At Work