Christian supporters of Israel, Messianic believers in Israel and the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom have expressed their concern over a document to be put before the Church of England General Synod (parliament) meeting in York during a motion to support Palestinian Christians.
Gateway News UK Correspondent Charles Gardner reports that the Kairos Palestine document purports to express solidarity with Palestinian Christians while accusing Israel of genocide, colonisation, and ethnic cleansing. It even appears to justify the October 7 2023, massacre of Jews due to “decades of injustice, oppression and displacement” in Gaza, he writes.
The Church’s Ministry among Jewish people (CMJ), founded in 1809 as the second-oldest Anglican missionary society, has written a letter to the Synod saying the voices of Jewish believers in Jesus and many others, including Anglicans, have not been represented.
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While acknowledging the motion’s commitment to peace and justice, they say the voices of suffering Palestinian Christians are being heard in isolation from other faithful Christian perspectives.
Co-founded in London by slave abolitionist William Wilberforce, CMJ have been established in Jerusalem itself for over two centuries, during which time they have consistently reached out to both Jews and Arabs, witnessing true reconciliation as the two often become one in Christ.
CMJ General Director Rev Aaron Eime, with support from the mission’s trustees, wrote: “Many Anglicans affirm God’s continuing purposes for the Jewish people while equally supporting justice, dignity and security for Palestinians.
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“Our historic vocation has been to strengthen understanding between the Church and the Jewish people… but we expect this to be a barrier to such engagement that will be interpreted as a threat to the Jewish community.”
Calling for a broader Anglican consultation on Israel, Palestine and the Jewish people, they held out the hope of further dialogue on the issue.
“We respectfully suggest that, if General Synod is encouraged to study Kairos Palestine, it should also be invited to engage with the significant body of theological reflection offered by Jewish believers in Jesus, Israeli Christians, Anglican theologians of differing convictions, and others whose scholarship presents complementary and contrasting perspectives. A process intended to deepen understanding should not inadvertently narrow the range of Christian perspectives from which the Church seeks its discernment.
“This document purports to seek peace but instead sows division and furthers hatred.”
UK Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis has urged the Church of England to dismiss a report describing Israel as a “colonial enterprise” that has carried out a “genocidal war on Gaza”, reports Premier Christian News.
Mirvis said the document, produced by the Kairos Palestine group of Christians, risked “undermining decades of careful relationship-building” between Christians and Jews and urged the CofE’s General Synod not to adopt it when members meet next week.
Synod members will debate a motion for the Church to show solidarity with Palestinian Christians, to “lament the loss of Israeli and Palestinian lives” and to “reject antisemitism [and] anti-Muslim prejudice”.
A list of documents members will vote on includes A Moment of Truth: Faith in a Time of Genocide, known as Kairos II.
It says that “the genocidal war on Gaza is the continuation of the Zionist project to seize all of Palestine, emptied of its Palestinian people…This genocide has been carried out by Israel after decades of apartheid, settler colonialism [and] political repression.”
It adds that the state of Israel should be considered a “colonial enterprise built on racism”.
Kairos II condemns the violence of Hamas’ terror attack on 7 October 2023, but states that it was “born out of decades of injustice, oppression and displacement”.
In a statement, first reported by The Times, the Chief Rabbi said the document “presents a one-sided account of a complex conflict, downplays the historical experiences and legitimate concerns of Jewish people, and offers little more than political activism dressed up as theology”.
He added: “While it is important to recognise the suffering of Palestinian Christians, this document does so in a way which can only harm the cause of peace. It is truly shocking that a document which purports to speak in the name of truth, contains so much falsehood – using extreme rhetoric to challenge the very concept of a Jewish state, and to oppose existing peace agreements in the region.
“At a time when Christian-Jewish relations require nuance, trust and a willingness to engage with complexity, Kairos II risks undermining decades of careful relationship-building. Meaningful progress begins when the dignity, aspirations and suffering of all peoples are acknowledged. Kairos II takes us further away from that goal, not closer to it.”
The Venerable Stewart Fyfe, the Archdeacon of West Cumberland, tabled the initial motion and rejected the claim he was asking Synod to endorse the views of Kairos II. He said the initial motion was about caring for all people of the Holy Land, with “heartfelt expressions of the lived experience of the Palestinian church” and showing concern for “the Jewish as well as Palestinian population”.
“We’ve very carefully not used the words ‘genocide’ or ‘apartheid’, we’ve not made a judgment [on] that. We’re saying: ‘Let’s at least read these documents, let’s hear why they are saying this, and let’s seek an understanding’”, he told The Times.
General Synod opens today, with the Middle East motion to be debated on Monday
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Psa 2:1 Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
Psa 2:2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,
Psa 2:3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
Psa 2:4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.
The obsession with destroying God’s people and land is astonishing and nothing new.
Some points to consider:
1. There is and was no place or state called Palestine. There is no history of an ancient Palestinian people because these people all come from neighbouring countries and are not native to the land.
2. There is no genocide of anyone by Israel. Even the ICJ could not find any wrong doing by Israel during the Gaza war.
Christian Palestinians are oppressed by Islam and not Israel. Why not mention Hamas???