David Kirkham Keynote Speaker at Armenia State and Church Conference

Professor David M. Kirkham, International Center for Law and Religion Studies, Brigham Young University, and Professor Ivan Strenski, University of California, Riverside, delivered the keynote addresses at the conference “Models of Relationship of State and Church: Contemporary Tendencies,” which took place 10-11 May 2013 at the American University of Armenia in Yerevan. Sponsored by the Collaboration for Democracy Centre under the direction of Stepan Danielyan, and with the support of the US Embassy in Armenia, the conference was the first of its kind in the country in which scholars focused almost entirely on challenges posed by traditional church-state relationships in Armenia and abroad.  Professors Kirkham and Strenski shared the podium with US Ambassador to Armenia John A. Heffern, who welcomed participants from national and international legal, religion, and social sciences academic communities and suggested Armenia should carefully examine its church-state traditions to arrive at the church-state model that best serves the Armenian nation.