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ARMENIAN CHURCH COULD CANONISE 1.5 MILLION VICTIMS OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Christian Today
Feb 5 2015
Ruth Gledhill
In what could stand as the biggest saint-making service in history,
the Armenian Church is preparing to canonise up to 1.5 million victims
of the Armenian genocide in one go.
The Armenian Apostolic Church is to mark the 100th anniversary of
the atrocity, which saw Turkey stripped of its Armenian population
in 1915, with a liturgy on April 23 at the Patriarchal See of the
Catholicosate in Echmiadzin Cathedral, the extraordinarily beautiful
mother church of the denomination at Vagharshapat in Armenia.
The announcement was made during a press conference held on 3 February
at the Patriarchal See.
Patriarch Karekin said in a statement: "The Armenian Church does not
sanctify. It recognizes the sanctity of saints or of those people that
is already common among people or has been shown with evidence. The
Church recognizes only what happened, that is, the genocide".
The decision to recognise the victims of the genocide as saints was
made in September 2013, during a meeting at Echmiadzin.
In the liturgy on the April 23 the Psalm "martyrs of April", composed
by the late Bishop Zareh Aznavourian, will be used as the psalm for
the canonization. The canonization will be attended by heads of sister
Oriental Churches and delegations of other Churches.
Soon after he became Pope in 2013, Pope Francis canonised 800 martyrs
killed in the 15th century by Ottoman Turks for refusing to convert
to Islam known as the "martyrs of Otranto".
Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith wrote in The Catholic Herald this week of
how on April 24 1915 the Ottoman government began to arrest and deport
Armenians who had been living in Anatolia "from time immemorial".
The organised campaign of arrest, deportation, massacre and
extermination led to the deaths of up to 1.5 million Armenians. "It
is for this reason that visitors to Turkey today will find plenty of
Armenian history but no actual Armenian people, or at least very few."
He added: "The Armenian genocide is commemorated all over the world,
but not in Turkey and not much in Britain, which studiously avoids
mentioning the genocide in order not to jeopardise relations with
Turkey."
He cited Hitler's view of the Armenian genocide: "Our strength is
our quickness and our brutality... Who still talks nowadays of the
extermination of the Armenians?"
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/armenian.church.could.canonise.1.5.million.victims .of.armenian.genocide/47498.htm
Christian Today
Feb 5 2015
Ruth Gledhill
In what could stand as the biggest saint-making service in history,
the Armenian Church is preparing to canonise up to 1.5 million victims
of the Armenian genocide in one go.
The Armenian Apostolic Church is to mark the 100th anniversary of
the atrocity, which saw Turkey stripped of its Armenian population
in 1915, with a liturgy on April 23 at the Patriarchal See of the
Catholicosate in Echmiadzin Cathedral, the extraordinarily beautiful
mother church of the denomination at Vagharshapat in Armenia.
The announcement was made during a press conference held on 3 February
at the Patriarchal See.
Patriarch Karekin said in a statement: "The Armenian Church does not
sanctify. It recognizes the sanctity of saints or of those people that
is already common among people or has been shown with evidence. The
Church recognizes only what happened, that is, the genocide".
The decision to recognise the victims of the genocide as saints was
made in September 2013, during a meeting at Echmiadzin.
In the liturgy on the April 23 the Psalm "martyrs of April", composed
by the late Bishop Zareh Aznavourian, will be used as the psalm for
the canonization. The canonization will be attended by heads of sister
Oriental Churches and delegations of other Churches.
Soon after he became Pope in 2013, Pope Francis canonised 800 martyrs
killed in the 15th century by Ottoman Turks for refusing to convert
to Islam known as the "martyrs of Otranto".
Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith wrote in The Catholic Herald this week of
how on April 24 1915 the Ottoman government began to arrest and deport
Armenians who had been living in Anatolia "from time immemorial".
The organised campaign of arrest, deportation, massacre and
extermination led to the deaths of up to 1.5 million Armenians. "It
is for this reason that visitors to Turkey today will find plenty of
Armenian history but no actual Armenian people, or at least very few."
He added: "The Armenian genocide is commemorated all over the world,
but not in Turkey and not much in Britain, which studiously avoids
mentioning the genocide in order not to jeopardise relations with
Turkey."
He cited Hitler's view of the Armenian genocide: "Our strength is
our quickness and our brutality... Who still talks nowadays of the
extermination of the Armenians?"
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/armenian.church.could.canonise.1.5.million.victims .of.armenian.genocide/47498.htm