Hundreds of Armenians gathered at the 10th-century Holy Cross Church near Van, a city close to Turkey's border with Iran, for the first religious service there since the mass killings of Armenians in 1915. The event, at a site considered sacred by many Armenians, was seen as a symbolic gesture by Turkey to mend relations with Armenia.

One way or another, debate over what role the Church, and by extension churches, can play in engaging with the European Union is only likely to intensify.