FRESNO, CA - The Senior Pastor of California's oldest Armenian Church will bid farewell to his congregation after 22 years of service.

Reverend Bernard Guekguezian will formally leave the pulpit of the historic First Armenian Presbyterian Church of Fresno on Homecoming Sunday, January 21, 2001.

The Congregation will mark the occasion with a special Armenian-language service of worship at 9:30 a.m., English-language service of worship at 11 a.m., and fellowship luncheon at 1 p.m. Hundreds of young people who were born or grew up in the FAPC congregation during the Guekguezian pastorate will be returning from points throughout California and across the nation to salute their childhood pastor.

All events will be held at the church campus at 430 South First Street at Huntington Boulevard in Fresno and the public is invited to attend.

A native of the biblical city of Antioch, Reverend Guekguezian was educated at the American University of Beirut Near East School of Theology, Fuller and New York Theological Seminaries, and Clark University of Worcester, Massachusetts.

In a half century of pastoral ministry, Reverend Guekguezian has served in the Armenian Evangelical Church of Alexandria, Egypt; the Armenian Congregational Church of the Martyrs of Worcester; the Armenian Presbyterian Church of Paramus, New Jersey; and, since December 10, 1978, the First Armenian Presbyterian Church of Fresno.

In recognition of his decades of pastoral service, Reverend Guekguezian was a nominee for New York Theological Seminary's Award of Distinction in Ministry in Year 2000.

At the conclusion of Homecoming Sunday, Reverend Guekguezian and his wife, the former Knar Kazanjian, will depart the San Joaquin Valley for a one-year interim.

More details about Homecoming Sunday activities are available from the FAPC offices at (559) 237-6638.

Forty Armenian immigrants chartered the First Armenian Presbyterian Church in a rented hall in Fresno on July 25, 1897. The boyhood church of author William Saroyan, FAPC is a member of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Armenian Evangelical Union of North America.