Armenian Apostolic Church to Canonize Genocide victims

ETCHMIADZIN — The Episcopal Conference of the Armenian Apostolic Church on September 24-27 at the Cathedral of Echmiadzin attended by 62 archbishops and bishops discussed the issue of restoring the tradition of beatification and beatifying the victims of the Armenian Genocide.

The Episcopal Conference decided to adopt the principle of collective beatifying of victims of the Armenian Genocide and task the commission to continue individual and group beatifying studies and draft the rules of beatifying to submit the findings to the next Episcopal Conference.

On the following two days the participants of the Episcopal Conference discussed the outputs of the Ritual Taskforce relating to two sacraments, Confirmation and Baptism.
The Conference adopted a standard original for the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation. Special importance was attached to the language of rituals and other issues which were said to need additional study. On September 27 the sessions were devoted to the ongoing challenges to the Armenian Church.

The Episcopal Conference dwelled on the national, religious, community, economic, demographic issues and other challenges and difficulties. Ahead of the challenges and problems the Episcopal Conference decided to establish a foundation to support the children of Artsakh and Syrian Armenians in need. Two million dollars were allocated for the establishment of the foundation and a special task force was set up.

The next Episcopal Conference will be called in the fall of 2014.