THE Council of Christians and Jews (CCJ), said to be the oldest interfaith organisation in Britain, is facing a financial shortfall. This has followed its launch of strategic initiatives, costing nearly Ł1 million, which have involved it in mediation between Christian Aid and parts of the Jewish community in Britain.
CCJ’s finances were strained after it moved “strategically” centre-stage in an attempt to improve interfaith relationships as well as increase its information and teaching work. It sought to build bridges between Christian Aid and the Jewish community after tensions arose over the aid agency’s policy on Palestine and the Occupied Territories.
The Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Revd Nigel McCulloch, who chairs the CCJ, warned last week that the Council needed an extra Ł100,000 if it was to carry on the “significant” work that no one else could do. “We have seen CCJ making a difference from Newcastle to Bristol, from Rome to Jerusalem. The vision of so many people whose lives have been dedicated to understanding between the Jewish and Christian people of Britain is becoming a reality,” he wrote in a letter to CCJ supporters.
The Council’s chief executive, David Gifford, said on Tuesday that the strategic plan had been successful. “We are building confidence in what we do, and a lot more work has been sent our way by our two communities; but the amount of finance has not kept pace with the demand for our work.”
The Lebanon crisis, the Tridentine mass, some views about relations with Jewish people that had emanated from Roman Catholic incomers from Poland, and various Christian Aid statements on the Israel-occupied territories had increased the demands of its work, he said.
Nigel Varndell, Intercommunity Initiatives Manager for Christian Aid, said on Tuesday: “There have always been tensions between Christian Aid and certain sections of the Jewish community over our work on Israel and the Occupied Territories. [CCJ] have helped us to attempt to bridge that by creating clearer perspectives on both sides.
“Part of the result has been a greater understanding and a greater openness to work with the Jewish community on all sorts of issues. Christian Aid is not going to change its work with Israel and Palestine, but the CCJ has helped create better understandings of the objects of both parties. It has helped us ‘go beyond the roadblocks’; and we now have a greater understanding of each other’s issues on a range of subjects. . .”
The chief executive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Jon Benjamin, said on Wednesday that there continued to be concern about Christian Aid’s “partisan approach”. |
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