The first edifice for Christian worship in the Ottoman Empire, erected on a new site, was the stone church at Aintab.

Prior to this, Christians had only been allowed to repair their old churches, and to rebuild on the old sites.

The obtaining of this new indulgence was probably owing, in a measure, to the influence of the Crimean war.

The dedication service, early in 1855, was attended by more than twelve hundred persons, and more than eleven hundred were present on the following Sabbath.
The printing reported for this year amounted to thirty-five thousand volumes, and nearly five millions of pages, in the Armenian, Armeno-Turkish, Greek, Greco-Turkish, and Hebrew-Spanish, but chiefly in Armenian.

A religious periodical was issued every two months called the "Avedaper," or "Messenger." Dr.Dwight was editor of this, but the general supervision of the press, after the decease of Mr.Benjamin, devolved on Dr.Riggs.
Octavo and duodecimo editions of the Armenian Bible were going through the press, as was also an octavo Bible in Greco-Turkish.