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civilisations as well. They die in the night when no one can remember why
once upon time they inspired self-sacrifice.
Destiny and history are intimately connected. If a person only has a
sense of history without a sense of destiny they can be very tedious. On the
other hand anyone who has a sense of destiny without a sense of history is
certainly very dangerous.
This evening we salute the efforts of the Armenian Church and people
to secure a just recognition of the sufferings of the past. Everyone who honours
the Armenian story is grateful for the courage of people like Hrant Dink whose
work released a flood of memories especially of forced adoptions. The then
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan declared after Dink’s assassination – “A bullet
was fired at freedom of thought and democratic life in Turkey”.
Talk about forgiveness when there has been no confession is too glib but
the Armenian story is moving forward. This ancient nation settled on the
Anatolian plateau for millennia has always demonstrated extraordinary
resourcefulness in maintaining Armenian culture, despite being threatened by a
succession of competing and opposing Empires. There are so many vivid
illustrations of Armenian resourcefulness. I particularly enjoy the thought of a
party of Western Capuchin missionaries who in 1707 arrived in Lhasa, believing
themselves to be the very first Christians to reach the forbidden city of Tibet -
only to find 5 prosperous Armenian merchants already in residence who offered
to show them around.
Jesus Christ at supper with his friends on the night in which he was
betrayed said “do this in remembrance of me”. It was not an invitation to recall
an event which would recede into “far away and long ago”. They were to
re-member him rather than dis-member him by quarrelling. Nourished by his
story they were to be his members, his arms and legs, his feet and hands so that
in their communities Jesus himself would be really present opening up a fissure
through which God’s future could irradiate the world. In our solemn
commemoration and celebration of the martyrs; in the outpouring of
compassion for those innocents who perished in 1915, the Armenian people are
preparing for great Armenian centuries to come.
I saw first-hand moving evidence of what is being done on a visit to
Eastern Armenia earlier in the year. There were great events superbly organised
but the memory which stays with me and inspires me with hope is the visit
under the aegis of His Holiness to a youth centre in Yerevan established by the
Church in a former Komsomol building. The talent and dynamism of the
young contributors to the concert which we were privileged to attend,

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