Armenian Liturgy

I came to Lviv, a multicultural city in the westernmost part of Ukraine, in an overnight bus from Warsaw. I was visiting Natalia Polovynka, one of the truly amazing singers of traditional Ukrainian songs. On my way to my hostel, exhausted as I was, I forgot my backpack with all of my audio equipment in the taxi. When I realized what happened I was on the verge of panic as a lot of it was borrowed and very expensive. When local police officers invited me to their office and when I saw the state of the whole building which must have been slowly decaying for dacedes, I held no hopes of ever finding it again. We ended up driving around city looking for a taxi and I was dumbfounded that the taxi driver was waiting me at the same spot where I took my taxi. Even though it would be impossible to trace him, and he saw that I had some expensive equipment, he would never steal it from me, I could read that from his face. So after the bumpy intro the following weekend is one of the warmest memories I have. It turned out that the assistant singer who was supposed to show me around sang in a choir in a local Armenian church. After my inquiry whether I would be allowed to record the liturgy, she asked the church officials, and as that particular Sunday, head bishop was coming to lead the ceremony, he approved himself. Here is a short excerpt of the ceremony.