Likewise, Masorti Judaism\u2019s Senior Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg, a co-president of the Council of Christians and Jews, called the Synod\u2019s response to Jewish concerns over the document as Kairos Palestine II as \u201cinadequate\u201d.<\/p>\n
Anglican bishops, clergy, and lay leaders overwhelmingly voted to \u201chear\u201d the document, released last year by a Palestinian Christian group called Kairos Palestine, and recommend that all levels of the Church engage with it. The motion had initially been worded to \u201creceive\u201d – rather than \u201chear\u201d – it.<\/p>\n
During the Synod debate, the archbishop of Canterbury, Dame Sarah Mullally, spoke favourably\u00a0of the motion, saying:\u00a0\u201cTo hear the heartfelt expressions of the lived experiences of the Palestinian Christians does not mean we agree with everything in these documents \u2013 but it does mean that we listen with compassion, and stand in solidarity with them amidst the many injustices they face.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the amended motion failed to assuage Jewish consternation, with Board of Deputies President Phil\u00a0Rosenberg describing it as \u201chighly problematic\u201d.<\/p>\n
“Kairos Palestine may come from a place of genuine pain, but the falsehoods and distortions of Kairos II, including its erasure of Jewish identity and experience, is a prescription for more division and not the answer to conflict in the Middle East,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
There was, he added,\u00a0\u201calso a clear tension between the incendiary wording of the document and the Church\u2019s expressed aim of tackling antisemitism\u201d.<\/p>\n
He offered thanks to allies across the Church who \u201cworked to share our concerns and mitigate the harms associated with the Synod motions relating to Kairos Palestine, including by calling for dialogue with the Jewish community\u201d.<\/p>\n
Reaffirming the Board\u2019s commitment to working with Christians, Jews, Muslims and others in this country to tackle hatred and extremism, he went on: \u201cWe will be stepping up that work over the coming days.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his response, Wittenberg noted that Kairos\u00a0had rightly been criticised by the Chief Rabbi prior to the debate \u201cas a barrier to peace and understanding\u201d and condemned by the Board of Deputies for calling Israel \u201ca colonialist and racist state\u201d.<\/p>\n
It was important for both Jews and Christians to acknowledge that Kairos II emerged from \u201csustained suffering and ongoing injustices\u201d but there was \u201call the difference in the world between sharp and justified criticism of specific policies of its government, with which many Jews, and Israelis, might largely agree, and the condemnation of the very right of the state of Israel to exist,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Although the Synod\u2019s response was \u201cmore nuanced,\u201d he suggested that\u00a0the nuance risked being \u201cbroadly undermined by what it fails to say\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Synod, he continued, \u201cacknowledges Israeli as well as Palestinian suffering and commits to the search for an enduring peace to end the tragic conflict in a just solution for both peoples. It does not define Israel as a colonialist entity\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt acknowledges the Church\u2019s contribution to antisemitism and Jewish suffering. It strongly\u00a0reaffirms the Church of England\u2019s commitment to Jewish-Christian dialogue and does not differentiate between Jews according to their views about Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, he said, \u201cthese commitments risk being contradicted by stating that the Church \u2018hears\u2019 and recommends \u2018engagement with\u2019 Kairos, vague terms which are hostage to interpretation and leave the door open to communities and clergy who choose to adopt Kairos uncritically\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn particular, the Church of England\u2019s response does not explicitly condemn the definition by Kairos II of Israel as a colonialist entity, or Kairos\u00a0II\u2019s failure to acknowledge the unbroken historical connection between the Jewish People and the Land of Israel. Nor does it condemn Kairos II\u2019s failure to acknowledge the necessity for a Jewish homeland in the wake of millennia of \u2013 often Christian \u2013 persecution, and in particular the Nazi Holocaust.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a result, many Jews committed to dialogue and interfaith work will find the Synod\u2019s statement\u00a0inadequate and insufficiently\u00a0reassuring.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Movement for Progressive Judaism said it appreciated that \u201cour concerns were\u2026\u00a0taken seriously\u201d. The distinction between \u201chearing\u201d as opposed to \u201cendorsing\u201d Kairos II was important, its leaders said, creating space for continuing the \u201cdifficult work\u201d of dialogue.<\/p>\n
But they added: \u201cWe continue to believe that Kairos Palestine II contains deeply problematic language and theological framing about Jews, Jewish history and Israel.<\/p>\n
“Left unchallenged, these risk entrenching the very divisions that dialogue should seek to overcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
In her contribution to the Synod, the archbishop said the situation in Israel and Palestine was \u201cgravely serious\u201d, recalling that in her visit to the region last month she had seen \u201chow settlements are expanding at unprecedented rates\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cPalestine, which the British government recognised last month, is disappearing.\u201d<\/p>\n
In particular, Palestinian Christians, whose numbers were becoming \u201cever smaller\u201d, faced an \u201cexistential threat,\u201d she claimed.<\/p>\n
Against this desperate backdrop, she said, \u201cwe are called to a new and active solidarity. We must not ignore the urgency of this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Jewish and Palestinian peoples had a \u201cprofoundly deep connection to the Holy Land\u201d and both had the right to self-determination.<\/p>\n
The Synod motion \u201crightly notes that we lament \u2013 equally, without qualification \u2013 the loss of Israeli and Palestinian lives. We affirm our rejection of antisemitism and anti-Muslim hostility.<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially with the abhorrent rise in antisemitism in this country, we must be vigilant about the long and terrible history of Christian anti-Jewish hatred. We must not add to this history: we must continue our journey of repentance and ongoing dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Kairos II document, she suggested, reflected \u201cthe pain and trauma of the Palestinian people. As a pastor, I hear the cry of our Palestinian Christian sisters and brothers \u2013 a cry that rises from the ruins of Gaza, and from the violence and oppression of the West Bank\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe urgency of the situation in the Holy Land demands that we have difficult conversations. We must listen to those things that are hard to hear, and take the risk of engaging across divides.<\/p>\n
She said she also heard the concerns of the Chief Rabbi, Progressive Jewish leaders, and the Board: \u201cDuring my recent visit to the Nova Exhibition in London, I was reminded once again that the pain and trauma of the appalling events of the October 7 attacks have not receded: they remain a daily reminder for the Jewish people in this country, Israel, and around the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore than ever, we need a critical, respectful dialogue \u2013 that includes the voices of Palestinian Christians, as well as our Jewish and Muslim friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe may feel the pressure to take sides, but we are called instead to human solidarity. Our duty is to defend freedom and human dignity. Our calling is to build bridges \u2013 believing that all people are made in the image of God.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Likewise, Masorti Judaism\u2019s Senior Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg, a co-president of the Council of Christians and Jews, called the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[245937,108326,1901,85,46,245938,43,2200],"class_list":["post-539850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-board-of-deputies","tag-church-of-england","tag-genocide","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-masorti-judaism","tag-news","tag-palestinians"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}