Evangelical Church of Armenia in Gyumri
Gyumri, an urban municipal community, is the second largest city in Armenia and serves as the administrative center of Shirak Province in the northwestern part of the country. It was founded and developed as a city in the 18th century and, until the establishment of the Soviet order, the city was called Alexandrapol. Alexandrapol had all the features of a modern city, with a unique urban culture, active intelligentsia, economically and culturally advanced, and located at the crossroads of trade routes. Alexandrapol also had strategic significance in a political sense as one of the most important cities in Transcaucasia, under the Russian Empire. This was also a remarkable area for Armenian Evangelicals. From the national archives of the Republic of Armenia it is clear that at the end of the 1840s there were small Armenian Evangelical communities. This means that the Armenian Evangelicalism in Eastern Armenia began spreading in unison with Western Armenia making this area one of the most important centers for Armenian Evangelicals in Eastern Armenia.
During the Soviet era, Alexandrapol was renamed Leninakan. The city’s population grew to over 200,000 prior to the devastating 1988 Earthquake, when several cities and villages were ruined. At the time of the Soviet Union break up, between 1990 and 1992, the city was renamed to its historical name Kumayri from the Urartu period, and later it was given the name Gyumri.
Soon after the 1988 Earthquake, the Armenian Missionary Association of America began serving the Homeland with a variety of services and in 1991 established its first office in Gyumri and further organized its activities in the city.

Pastor Aram Babajanyan

Armenian Evangelical Ministers from different parts of the world participate in the Dedication Service of the newly constructed Gyumri Church, on September 30, 2018.