The 1915-23 Armenian Genocide was indisputably homicidal, despite the continued denials, says an international legal and ecumenical consultant. The historical evidence is overwhelming, but this terrible event is about much more than the past. Beginning with a telling comparison with Poland and Russia, where the remembrance of the long-denied Katyn massacre has finally been acknowledged (in the midst of present tragedy and the struggle to transcend it), Dr Hagopian looks at the way the facts and disputes around the Armenian horror at the beginning of the twentieth century have been handled, as well as the current politics of recognition and non-recognition. Lobbying for international acknowledgement of the Armenian Genocide – including that of the US and UK governments – is important, he says. But a positive approach to handling it in the present is also needed. By choosing "living unity over deathly disunity", Armenians can be effective witnesses against official Turkish denial, letting their present define their past and showing that the refusal to forget can be integrated with healing, as well ensuring that the crimes of history are not repeated in the future. This essay does not seek to be cold, dispassionate analysis, but comes from a perspective of acknowledged engagement which still seeks to see the wider picture, to promote justice for all, and to locate facts and feelings within a sphere of humanising concern shaped by faith.

A March 2010 opinion survey conducted by professional polling organisation ICM Research shows that the population of the UK is equally split over the importance of institutional religion in public life, but three-quarters of the public and 70 per cent of Christians believe it is wrong for bishops to have reserved places in the House of Lords.