Armenian Church Reports Attendance Gains as Khachkar Studios Expands Community Outreach

An Armenian Apostolic church in Ridgefield has seen its average Sunday attendance rise by more than half under a community outreach program that encourages worshippers to bring friends and family to church, Khachkar Studios said Tuesday.

Sts. Vartanantz Armenian Apostolic Church, supported by its Salt & Light Youth Ministry, recorded an average of 101 Sunday attendees over the past four weeks, compared with a baseline of 66 — an increase of 53%.

The church was featured in the organization’s October 20 report on a program supporting 26 participating religious communities worldwide. The initiative combines financial support with weekly tracking of attendance, outreach and engagement.

For Armenian diaspora communities, where churches serve as gathering places for faith, culture and connections across generations, the effort addresses a familiar question: How do congregations encourage people to participate regularly and bring younger adults into community life?

Across the program’s first group of 11 participating communities, average Sunday attendance over the past four weeks reached 1,643, up from a baseline of 1,014. That represents an increase of 629 attendees, or 62%, Khachkar Studios reported.

Those attendance figures cover the first 11 participants, rather than all 26 communities in the program.

A central goal is to double attendance at non-holiday Sunday services. Another is for women ages 18 to 29 to account for more than 15% of attendees.

The first group remains below that second target. Young women accounted for 200 attendees, or about 12% of the reported total.

The program’s invitation is straightforward: “Bring a friend. Bring a family. This Sunday and every Sunday.”

Outreach extends beyond Sunday services. Across all 26 participants, Khachkar Studios reported 1,546 outreach visits reaching 3,536 individuals so far in 2026. During the week of Oct. 11-17, participants conducted 137 visits reaching 336 people.

The organization also reported nearly 1.2 million cumulative social media views across 568 invitation videos. Those figures measure online views, rather than attendance or the number of people who joined a congregation.

As of September, Khachkar Studios said it had provided just over $1 million in financial support to the 26 participants. The organization supports religious groups across denominations, using performance-based criteria.

Khachkar Studios publishes its weekly performance tables⁠ every Tuesday under its Transparency, Accountability and Performance initiative. The attendance gains and outreach totals are figures reported by the organization. (khachkarstudios.com⁠)

—

Support independent reporting from the region by subscribing to The Armenian Report. Our team is funded solely by readers like you.