Stone cross at Canterbury Cathedral to commemorate Armenian Genocide
A two-meter-all, half-ton stone cross, hewn out of volcanic stone from Armenia, has been given on long term loan to Canterbury Cathedral to commemorate the Armenian Genocide, The Armenian Mirror-Spectator reports.
The cross is the work of Brigadier John Meardon, who retired from his role as Receiver General at the Cathedral in 2016, and Vartan Moskofian, an electronics engineer.
Meardon said, “The idea behind the stone was two-fold. It’s to mark the centenary of the genocide of 1.5 million Armenians and to act as a symbol for reconciliation between peoples.
“Vartan and I are members of ‘Pure Form,’ an amateur stone sculpture group here in Canterbury. Vartan wanted to commemorate the genocide which had affected so many Armenians and thought it was a project we could both work on using stone as the medium.
“Vartan drew up the design and I approached the Dean and Chapter to see if they would be happy to accept the cross as a loan item of religious sculpture. It seemed a good fit for Canterbury as Archbishop Randall Davidson was very public in fighting the Armenian cause at the end of the First World War and not only is he buried in the Cloister but he also has a memorial inside the Cathedral. The Dean and Chapter have agreed to accept it after seeing the drawings and hearing the story. Vartan sounded out the Armenian community in UK and elsewhere and secured financial donations to purchase a block of stone in Armenia and ship it to Canterbury.
Davidson was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 1903, succeeding Frederick Temple and remained in office until his resignation in 1928.
The freestanding cross, called a “Khachkar” in Armenian, will be placed in the Cathedral’s Memorial Garden and will be dedicated in a short service following Evensong on Saturday, March 2.
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