A GROUP of church leaders in Ireland came together this morning to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.
The Church Leaders Group (Ireland) held a time of reflection as part of their meeting in Armagh this morning (January 27).
They included Archbishop John McDowell, the Church of Ireland Primate of All Ireland; Archbishop Eamon Martin, the Roman Catholic Primate of All Ireland; the Revd David Nixon, the President of the Methodist Church in Ireland; Bishop Andrew Forster, the President of the Irish Council of Churches and Church of Ireland Bishop of Derry and Raphoe; and the Rt Revd Dr John Kirkpatrick, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.
Annually recognised across the globe, Holocaust Memorial Day encourages remembrance of the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, alongside the millions of other people killed under the Nazi persecution of other groups and during more recent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.
Every year the day is marked on January 27, which marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp.
For 2023 Holocaust Memorial Day carries the theme 'Ordinary People'.
"Our theme this year, highlights the ordinary people who let genocide happen, the ordinary people who actively perpetrated genocide, and the ordinary people who were persecuted," the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust explains.
"Our theme will also prompt us to consider how ordinary people, such as ourselves, can perhaps play a bigger part than we might imagine in challenging prejudice today."
