Church action for the Palestinians
From the Revd David Haslam
Sir, — The challenging article by Canon Richard Sewell on hope in the Holy Land (Comment, 23/30 December) quoted Palestinian church leaders calling for Churches to abandon their neutrality over the situation there and to take urgent action. It is, however, difficult for those in the situation to specify what kind of action, and easier for those of us outside to do so.
This is even more important in the light of the policies being proposed by the new Government. These seem to be designed to provoke a new intifada, or uprising, in order for the Israeli security forces to crack down even further against any resistance — peaceful or otherwise.
What those of us involved over thirty years in the Anti-Apartheid Movement in relation to South Africa learned was the need for a kind of pincer movement, where we on the outside responded to the calls for action from those inside. In those discussions, it became clear that an escalating economic boycott, alongside those of sports and culture, would be essential to force the regime to listen to the internal African leadership.
It was difficult then for leaders such as Archbishop Tutu to urge economic sanctions, but he endorsed them. He also endorsed the same stance in relation to what he described as apartheid in Israel/Palestine. Nelson Mandela intimated similarly, saying that Africans could not be free until freedom came to Palestinians. What is needed now is political and economic pressure on Israel to honour its commitments to being a genuinely democratic society, and to recognise that Palestinians who have lived there as long as the Jewish people must be treated as equals, with equal rights for all in the land of their ancestors.
To give hope to Palestinians requires active pressure on Western governments to stop wringing their hands at every tightening of “security measures”, and every successive Israeli atrocity against Palestinians, and introduce serious sanctions, such as expelling diplomats, reducing trade, and ending all “security” collaboration with Israel. Aid could also be cut. If the US reduced its $3 billion a year by half, and put blocks on the money transfers that enable the purchases of Palestinian land and property, that could encourage the Israeli government to think again.
Pressure is also needed on the UK banks that support the Occupation. The recent Don’t Buy into Occupation Report showed that HSBC and Barclays are two of the three largest lenders to the fifty companies that are most involved in developing the infrastructure and construction in the Occupied Territories. The Churches all have large investments in those two banks, and some of the named companies, and should be addressing this issue in their dialogues with them. They could also press for more investment in the Palestinian economy.
Hope is a vague concept. Making it real usually needs both political and economic content. If the Churches here were to adopt some of these policies instead of simply offering prayers or sympathetic messages, Palestinian Christians — a vital if small minority — would have more grounds for hope. Although many Palestinians are being forced to leave to escape the Occupation, Jews and the Palestinians remaining will always have to share the land between the river and the sea. Whether they do that in mutual respect and dignity rather than acrimony and hate may well depend on how much effective weight the outside world brings to bear.
DAVID HASLAM
59 Burford Road
Evesham WR11 3AG
Conservative teaching is a safeguarding risk
From Jayne Ozanne
Sir, — Ed Shaw continues to push the line that he is a “Christian who attempts to live according to the Bible” and that those who disagree with his interpretation are guilty of a “departure from apostolic teaching” (Comment, 6 January).
Not only does this prove that the years and money invested in Living in Love and Faith have been in vain: it also shows just how dangerous his views are to the “confused younger people from sexual minority groups” whom he has a Bishop’s Mission Order to work with. It is well beyond time that the Church of England recognised and repented of the tremendous harm that it has caused, and continues to cause, LGBT+ people and their families, owing to the spiritually abusive teaching that leads many to hate themselves.
While, for some, the teaching of Living Out creates a useful scapegoat for their hermetically sealed hermeneutic, which is open neither to reason, experience, nor alternative interpretations of scripture, to most of us it poses a significant safeguarding risk that causes many LGBT+ people lifelong mental-health problems. This cannot be allowed to continue, as lives are at stake.
I do agree with Mr Shaw that, if there is to be differentiation, then it should be temporary, so that those who continue to cause such harm will repent and come to see the error of their ways.
JAYNE OZANNE
General Synod member for Oxford diocese
Address supplied
Jesus Army: former JFC member’s experience
From Alison Brierley
Sir, — The report “Former Jesus Army members now expected to seek compensation” (News, 25 November) quotes only from a solicitor acting on behalf of claimants and from the website of the Jesus Fellowship Survivors Association. My view as a former member of the Jesus Fellowship Church might be pertinent.
The idea that “having women offered up as ‘available’ in elders’ meetings ensured men viewed women as property” is ridiculous and diametrically opposite to the almost monastic conditions that prevailed at the time when we lived in the community between 1975 and 1985. In houses shared by men and women, there was a strict code of behaviour, separating the two. There were social shared areas — dining rooms, sitting rooms and kitchens — but bedrooms were totally separate areas.
In community houses, many of the elderly received love and care in the place where they had friends until the end of their lives. Many members of the Jesus Fellowship continued a 50-year commitment to this shared lifestyle, living unselfish lives, seeking to live with humility and purity according to the words of Jesus. These people do not deserve to be tarred by the bad deeds of a very few who were leaders, which probably happened after we left the church. There were few actual convictions of sexual abuse, one or two being of former members, not leaders.
I agree that there was psychological pressure on people to conform, and the impact of that has adversely affected some adults who were then children and did not make the choice, like their parents, to belong. We were there voluntarily and had our initial capital investment reimbursed on leaving.
The seeds of this church’s downfall were sadly in the lack of safeguarding. Similar abuses have been exposed across the whole spectrum of denominations in subsequent years. It would now appear to be well nigh impossible to live and maintain such a common lifestyle, having all things in common, miraculous as it seemed then, in our current culture. The many unsung good lives invested in that community created something remarkable for a while, and deserve some sympathy, as the amount that individuals will have received on its dissolution hardly suffices for more than half a lifetime of faithful service.
ALISON BRIERLEY
Address supplied
C of E multi-ethnic group’s policy to exclude Jews
From Ol Rappaport
Sir, — I was deeply saddened to read of the experience of your anonymous correspondent (Letters, 6 January) who was excluded from a support group for clergy from minority-ethnic backgrounds because of his Jewish heritage. After some shameful stereotyping — “as Jews were rich, well educated” — the group added, he says, that Jews are “involved in the persecution of the Palestinian peoples”.
This is anti-Semitism, pure and simple. The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of anti-Semitism includes this example: “Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel”.
I find it deeply disappointing that clergy in the 21st century show such ignorance. That they are from minority-ethnic backgrounds further highlights the urgent need for training on issues of race and ethnicity within the Anglican Communion.
I am a Quaker and a member of Liberal Judaism.
OL RAPPAPORT
26 Kingsley Avenue
London W13 0EF
British involvement in history that led to the Triads
From Canon Christopher Hall
Sir, — “There is still much for many of us to learn,” concludes Canon Nicholas Cranfield’s review of the British Library’s “Chinese and British” exhibition (Arts, 6 January). Indeed.
He comments that there is no mention of the drug-dealing corrupt Chinese Triads in recent decades. He might also have referred to the drug-dealing “Honest John” East India Company, which, in the 1800s, grew opium in Bengal and pushed it on China, later supported by flame-throwing ships in the Opium Wars.
The subsequent wealth of Jardine, Mathieson and others established the prosperity of Hong Kong, whose people are now paying the price for British past misdeeds and experience the re-writing of history by the Beijing regime.
CHRISTOPHER HALL
The Knowle, Deddington
Banbury OX15 0TB
The Holy Innocents
From the Revd David Billin
Sir, — The Revd Adrian Leak’s article “Driven far from their home” (Faith, 23/30 December) expresses doubt that the massacre of the innocents ever happened, because the historical evidence for it is weak.
Perhaps he was not aware of the archaeological dig in Bethlehem which discovered a mass grave dating from Herod’s time, containing the skeletons of about 100 infants (Christianity+Renewal magazine, March 2001).
DAVID BILLIN
33 Beeches Avenue
Carshalton SM5 3LJ
Ratzinger ramifications
From Mr Steve Vince
Sir, — I was surprised that your obituary of the former Pope (Gazette, 6 January) made no mention of the effective rejection in 1992 of the ARCIC agreed statements by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, under the leadership of the then Cardinal Ratzinger. I still wonder whether the 1992 vote in the General Synod to admit women to the priesthood would have failed without this rejection, as it blew the argument that “We shouldn’t ordain women because it’ll stop unity with Rome” out of the water.
STEVE VINCE
13 Selwyn Close
Wolverhampton WV2 4NQ
Press and infallibility
From Mr Patrick Kidd
Sir, — While that Guardian correction about the King’s not being head of the Roman Catholic Church in England is very amusing (Press, 6 January), I’m afraid that The Times must still hold the record for religious correction of the century. In 2015, this appeared: “Karol Wojtyla was referred to in Saturday’s Credo column as ‘the first non-Catholic pope for 450 years’. This should, of course, have read ‘non-Italian’. We apologise for the error.”
There, but for the G of G, go all of us.
PATRICK KIDD
97 Greenvale Road
London SE9 1PE
Doorway puzzle solved
From Canon Geoffrey Ravalde
Sir, — The answer to your photographic conundrum (News, 6 January) is Holme Cultram Abbey, Abbeytown, in the diocese of Carlisle. As a neighbouring vicar, perhaps I may add that it is well worth a visit, and easily accessible from the Lake District.
GEOFFREY RAVALDE
The Vicarage, Longthwaite Road
Wigton CA7 9JR