With UCC's support, ecumenical bodies urge U.S. House to recognize Armenian genocide Written by UCNews and NCC reports Nov 07, 2007 12:00 AM EST
The General Assembly of the National Council of Churches of Christ and Church World Service, holding its annual meeting Nov. 6-8 in Iselin, N.J., urged the U.S. House of Representatives to pass legislation recognizing the slaughter of Armenians in 1915 as a genocide.
The resolution put forward by the Rev. Arem Jabejian, an Armenian Orthodox priest from Chicago, was passed by voice vote with six persons requesting to be counted as abstaining.
The Armenian genocide statement as amended and approved by the NCC's General Assembly said it is "unacceptable that the United States has yet to officially recognize the Genocide of 1915, which in fact decimated a majority of the Armenian population then living in Asia Minor."
UCC General Minister and President John H. Thomas, who advocated adoption of the resolution, offered one of the most "significant" speeches on the floor of the General Assembly, according to the Rev. Lydia Veliko, the UCC's ecumenical officer.
The UCC has strong historical ties to the Armenian church. In the 19th and early-20th centuries, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mission, predecessor to today's Wider Church Ministries, was very active in Turkey ministering among Armenian Christians. During the genoicide, many UCC-predecessor missionaries suffered with their Armenian neighbors, and many Congregationalists in the United States rallied to the cause of the Armenians.
"Given our historical connection, it is gratifying to see the National Council of Churches join the Orthodox and Evangelical Armenian community in calling for truth telling as a critical condition of reconciliation between the Armenian and Turkish communities," Thomas told United Church News. "At a time when genocide is again being repeated in Darfur, it is important that the United States be seen as a national firmly committed to human rights and not simply to the narrow vision of our own foreign policy interests."
The NCC statement cited House Resolution 106
"acknowledging this universally recognized historical fact (and) condemning this crime against humanity." Most historians agree that the slaughter was carried out by soldiers of the then Ottoman Turk Empire.
The House leadership decided not to place the legislation before the full House because of objections from the Bush Administration, which said it would harm relations between the U.S. and Turkey, a NATO ally.
"As persons of faith, we express our concern that the truth was not upheld by our elected representatives," the NCC resolution states.
The statement "strongly urges the leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives to bring forth this legislation before the end of this Congress."
The NCC General Assembly also passed by unanimous voice vote a statement reaffirming the ecumenical body's commitment to peace in the Middle East.
Noting that the Middle East situation has deteriorated since the hopeful days of the 1980 Camp David Peace Accords, the updated policy reaffirms commitments to peace, including encouragement of a responsible discourse in the Middle East; a focus on issues of particular importance related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; concern for the alarming diminution of the Christian community of the Middle East; and appreciation for interfaith sensitivities among Christians, Jews and Muslims, as well as people of other faiths.
"The member communions of the NCC have a profound connection to the Holy Land," the statement acknowledges. "It is the place where God was revealed in Jesus Christ through the power of the Spirit ... Therefore, we reaffirm these commitments, cognizant of the role our nation plays in the Middle East, to remind ourselves of the urgent need to influence our country to take right and moral actions in the region."
The NCC ? of which the UCC is an active member ? is the ecumenical voice of 35 of America's Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican, historic African American and traditional peace churches. These NCC member communions have 45 million faithful members in 100,000 congregations in all 50 states.