Lament and penitence on Holocaust Memorial Day
Holocaust Memorial Day confronts Christians with a shameful history of anti-Semitism, a history that was invoked by the instigators of the Holocaust and which motivated some in Nazi-occuppied territories to collude with this evil. The Church of England’s 2019 report on Christian-Jewish relations, ‘God’s Unfailing Word’, states that Christians over centuries “have used Christian doctrine in order to justify and perpetuate Jewish suffering”. The report continues to say that this “has fostered attitudes of distrust and hostility among Christians towards their Jewish neighbours, in some cases leading to violent attacks, murder and expulsion”. This history “contributed to fostering the passive acquiescence if not positive support of many Christians in actions that led to the Holocaust”.
The long, bitter history of Christian anti-Semitism, and its contribution to the Holocaust, should lead to corporate penitence on Holocaust Memorial Day. There already is a historic liturgy appropriate for this. The Book of Common Prayer has ‘A Commination’, a robust service normally used on Ash Wednesday but also for use at other times of communal penitence. In recalling sins against our neighbour, it has a particular resonance in light of the history of Christian anti-Semitism: “Cursed is that removeth his neighbour’s land-mark … Cursed is he that smiteth his neighbour secretly”.
The heart of ‘A Commination’ is reciting Psalm 51 kneeling, a psalm of deep and profound penitence. The fact, of course, that Christianity has inherited this psalm and the entire Psalter from Judaism would be especially resonant on Holocaust Memorial Day. As Christians we would be kneeling in penitence, seeking forgiveness for our tradition’s sins against the Jewish people, in words bequeathed to us by the Jewish tradition.
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