By Arthur Hagopian

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has taken a decisive and courageous step today as it moved to remind the nations of the world of the Armenian genocide of 1915.

In minutes adopted at its 10th Assembly meeting in the South Korean town of Busan, the WCC announced it would seek to organize an international conference in Geneva on April 24 next year (which marks the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide), to urge "recognition of and reparation for the Armenian genocide, with the participation, among others, of WCC member churches, international organizations, jurists, historians and human rights defenders."

Father Pakrad Bourjekian representing the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, stated that the measure  was mainly a result of the efforts of the Armenian delegation, which also included Archbishop Vicken Aykazian (Eastern Diocese of America’s Ecumenical Director), and Bishop Hovakim Manoukian, (Head of the Ecumenical Department at Etchmiadzin).

The WCC was acceding to requests from leaders of the Armenian Church, in particular Catholicos Garegin II, who lodged a petition prior to the 10th Assembly meeting for the WCC to initiate programs to observe the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.

The 10th Assembly, which wound up its deliberations today, also wants to organize an ecumenical prayer service commemorating the victims of the Armenian genocide at the Cathedral of Geneva in conjunction with the international conference and to invite members of the WCC to pray for the memory of Armenian martyrs.