ARCHBISHOP LEON CHECHEMIAN

Leon Checkemian, the son of Jacob and Rose Checkemian was born in 1848 at Malatia as a subject of the Ottoman Empire. Although originally a member of the Armenian Apostolic Church, at the age of thirteen he met Bishop Leon Chorchorunian (1822-1897), who had not long been ordained Armenian Catholic bishop of that city. Under his influence the family transferred its allegiance to the Armenian Catholic Church. The young Leon travelled via Aintab and Aleppo to Iskenderun where he took the steamer to Beirut, crossed the Lebanon Mountains to meet Patriarch Antony Hassun (who had served as spiritual leader of the community from 1845-48 but did not resume his office for a second term as Patriarch until 1866-1880), the Patriarch of Cilicia.

Leon Checkemian was ordained to subdeacon on 20 November 1866; on the following day he was advanced to be Deacon and on 27 November 1866 was anointed a priest in Behesni at the hands of Archbishop Chorchorunian with the permission of Archbishop Nazarin and also the newly elected Patriarch Antonius Peter IX. He served as priest at Besui 1866-68, Aintab 1868,Gurum 1868-77, Malatia 1868-77 & 1878-81 before serving in Constantinople 1881-85 when he left the Armenian Catholic Church.

Bishop Leon Checkemian's claim to episcopal status is often challenged by some. According to his seal, adopted after 1898, Checkemian was "consecrated a Bishop at Malatia, Asia Minor, 1878" and his own account was that on 23 April 1878 he was consecrated as Bishop of Malatia in the great Cathedral of Malatia by Archbishop Chorchorunian, receiving the titles "Most Honourable Lord Doctor and Very Reverend."

As further evidence of his status, Bishop Leon Checkemian quotes from Medgemovie Havidis, a daily paper published in Constantinople. In its issue of 28 December 1881 it reports: "The Most Honourable Lord Doctor Leon Checkemian, who was ordained to the most honourable degree of Doctor by the Right Reverend Chorchorunian, most Illustrious Archbishop, and who was for a long time in Malatia, on his arrival at this time in Constantinople, directly went to St. Jean Chrysostom Church, and there with his brethren in the priesthood holding Communion unanimously yesterday in the same church, celebrated High Mass in the presence of crowds of people, which was heard joyfully. May the Almighty God again, with such help, make the nation glad and bring down men of evil thoughts."

This was his Oriental way of translating a stipulation, made at the time of his consecration, that he should not confer Holy Orders during the life of Archbishop Chorchorunian except with special permission. In other words, he was "Episcopus in partibus infidelium", a bishop without regular jurisdiction consecrated to assist another bishop. This is now commonly called a Titular Bishop.

He arrived in England in 1885 and, like many penniless exiles, at first earned a living by menial jobs: as a stablehand and a sandwichman. He appears to have made his first ecclesiastical contacts with Anglicans as he quoted a letter from Dr. Frederick Temple, Bishop of London, dated 4 June 1886 stating that as he had not invited him to London, he could not be expected to maintain him. The Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr Edward White Benson) was able to offer little practical support. Checkemian was to complain bitterly of the "cruel" way in which they had treated him, observing that "God made their hearts harder than stones." Checkemian subsequently found a warmer reception among Scottish Presbyterians, notably with the Rev'd J.G. Cunningham of St. Luke's Free Church, Edinburgh. 

In 1890 he met with Archbishop Plunket, Anglican Archbishop of Dublin. Archbishop Plunket dreamt of weakening the power of the Church of Rome by promoting Reformed Episcopal churches among indigenous Christians outside the immediate sphere of influence of Anglicanism. He received Checkemian into the Church of Ireland and on 4 November 1890 granted him a General Licence in his own diocese of Dublin.

Another license, issued from Dublin on 25 May 1891, strongly suggested that Archbishop Plunket was giving provisional episcopal oversight to what he hoped would be a future self-governing independent anglican or episcopal community, stating "You in accordance with what you consider the usage of the Primitive Church desire to exercise your priestly office under due episcopal sanction and supervision pending the more complete organisation of those among whom you propose to labour and until such time as you may obtain legitimate source have appealed to us for whatever help in the above mentioned direction it may be in our power to bestow" and went on to "provisionally" authorise you to exercise your office of priest in the Old Catholic Armenian community wherein you have been requested to minister and we do hereby offer to you such provisional episcopal oversight as you may require in the exercise of that office."

Archbishop Plunket Checkemian with a formal Testimonial, stating "He is not undertaking this duty for the purpose of winning our adherents to the Anglican Communion, or to any branch of that body. He is merely responding to a call from some among his own people, who, in obedience to their own religious convictions, and in the exercise of their own religious liberty, have spontaneously sought for his ministry. As to what may become necessary in the way of future Church organisation, he does not seem, so far as I can judge, to have formed as yet any definite resolve. His present desire is simply to preach the Gospel, leaving the result in Gods hand, and awaiting the indication of his will.

As regards the Armenian Apostolic Church, the attitude of Bishop Checkemian showed that though the charge of monophysite heresy brought against that church has been unduly magnified, he deplored the what he considered "many erroneous doctrines and superstitious usages" such as the veneration of icons, the invocation of saints, and the cultus of the Blessed Virgin which prevail within it at the time.

In the 1890's hundreds of thousands of Armenians died in pogroms ordered by Sultan Abdul Hamid II.  The outbreak of renewed serious persecution of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, which began with the Sassoun Uprising of 1894.

Bishop Checkemian had moved to London from 23 June 1896 until 4 January 1901. It was at this time that he came into contact with a number of bishops of independent jurisdictions. One of these was Alfred Spencer Richardson, who had been consecrated bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church at Philadelphia in 1879. Another was Mar Theophilus (Stevens), Patriarch of the Ancient British Church, which traced its apostolic succession to the Syrian Orthodox Church through Bishop Julius Ferrette (1828-1904 [he British Orthodox would later join under the Pope of Alexandria to regain a name among the Orientals). There was clearly common ground here as both Checkemian and Mar Theophilus had a distant, but common episcopal ancestry from Oriental Orthodox churches. They decided to cooperate together.

On 2 November 1897 at St. Stephen's Church, East Ham, Checkemian presided at the episcopal consecration of Andries Caarel Albertus MacLaglen as Colonial Missionary Bishop in Cape Colony, South Africa. He was also given the title of Titular Bishop of Claremont of the Free Protestant Church of England which had just been founded with Bishop Checkemian as its first Archbishop. ArchbishopCheckemian was assisted by three bishops.  To settle any doubt of his status Bishop Stevens offered his assistance and consecrated Checkemian bishop "sub conditione". Archbishop Chechemian himself would lead what was called the United Armenian Catholic Church in 1898. Archbishop Checkemian would pass his responsibilities to Mar Theophilus within a few years. Archbishop Leon Chechemian later was reposed in the Lord, and survived by his widow.