page_title: Anjar, Lebanon
section_title: Religion and education
hierarchical_section_title: Anjar, Lebanon / Religion and education
caption_attribution_description: English: Anjar's main street, looking towards the local Armenian Evangelical Church and the Lebanon-Syria border.
context_page_description: Anjar, is a town of Lebanon located in the Bekaa Valley. The population is 2,400, consisting almost entirely of Armenians. The total area is about twenty square kilometers (7.7 square miles). In the summer, the population swells to 3,500, as members of the Armenian diaspora return to visit there. In the ancient world, it was known as Chalkis.
context_section_description: The majority of Anjar's Armenians are Armenian Apostolics (Orthodox) who belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church and Holy See of Cilicia. Armenian Apostolic Saint Paul Church is the second largest Armenian church in Lebanon.
  The Armenian Apostolic community has its own school, Haratch Calouste Gulbenkian Secondary School. In 1940, the chief editor of the Armenian newspaper Haratch in Paris, Shavarsh Missakian, organized a fundraising campaign among the Armenians living in France which enabled the building of the "Haratch" Elementary School next to the newly established St. Paul Armenian Apostolic Church.  The official opening of the school took place in 1941. The administration of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation contributed to the expansion of the school, which was named in honor of Calouste Gulbenkian.
  Our Lady of the Rosary Armenian Catholic Church in Anjar serves as church for the Armenian Catholics,  who also run the Armenian Catholic Sisters School. In the beginning, the school had two divisions, St. Hovsep for the male students and Sisters of Immaculate Conception for the female students. In 1954, these departments were united. 1973 saw the official opening of the Aghajanian Orphan House, already serving as an Armenian Catholic orphanage since 1968.
  The Armenian Evangelical Church of Anjar is in operation to serve Anjar's small Armenian Evangelical community.  The Protestant community school was established in 1948 by Sister Hedwig Aienshanslin as part of her missionary work in Anjar. In 1953, the school, which had already become an intermediate school, was promoted into a secondary school. It has day classes as well as boarding facilities for students from other regions who stay there throughout the winter.
caption: The main street in Anjar (looking towards the local Armenian Evangelical Church and the Lebanon-Syria border).
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