wfn.org | WCC UPDATE Churches to commemorate Armenian genocide on 24

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World Council of Churches - Update
Contact: + 41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 15/04/2005

CHURCHES WORLDWIDE
TO COMMEMORATE THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
ON 24 APRIL

The member churches of the World Council of Churches (WCC) have been
invited to make Sunday 24 April a day of memory of the Armenian genocide
on its 90th anniversary.

This way of commemorating the tragic massacre of one-and-a-half million
Armenians in Turkey and the deportation of another million from their
homeland was recommended last February by the Council's central committee.
In its recommendation to commemorate what was the first genocide of the
20th century, the governing body stressed "the need for public recognition
of the Armenian genocide and the necessity of Turkey to deal with this
dark part of its history".

"I am personally in communion with you in prayers and in solidarity with
the cause of your people," wrote the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel
Kobia in an 11 April letter addressed to the Catholicos of All Armenians,
Supreme Patriarch Karekin II.

Kobia also expressed his hope that the "intercessory prayers that the
fellowship of churches will offer on Sunday, 24 April, will remind the
world of the words of the gospel: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they
shall be called the children of God".

In another letter sent to the Council's member churches on 14 April, the
director of the WCC Commission of the Churches on International Affairs
(CCIA) Mr Peter Weiderud voiced his hope that "services held all over the
world on 24 April would encourage churches and Christians to reflect on
truth, justice, repentance, forgiveness, reconciliation and healing of
society".

The full text of the WCC central committee recommendation is available
at:
http://www.oikoumene.org/GEN_PUB_5_Second_report_o.779.0.html

This material may be reprinted freely.

Additional information: Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363
media@wcc-coe.org

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The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 347, in
more than 120 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian
traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but works
cooperatively with the WCC. The highest governing body is the assembly,
which meets approximately every seven years. The WCC was formally
inaugurated in 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its staff is headed by
general secretary Samuel Kobia from the Methodist church in Kenya.