laudable Practice

...  thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree - Romans 11:24. On Monday coming, Holocaust Memorial Day, I will open my Book of Common Prayer to say Morning Prayer, as we recollect the deep horror and vile evil of the Shoah. After the first lesson, I will say the Benedicite, from the text in the Apocrypha now appropriately known as 'The Song of the Three Jews' - the praises uttered by Ananias, Azarias, and Misael in the fiery furnace: O all ye Works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever ... O let Israel bless the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever. It brings to mind those who repeated the Shema Yisrael and declared the praises of Adonai even in the face of the unspeakable evil of the death camps. The God of Abraham is to be ever praised, even when thick darkness gathers, when deep injustice appears to reign, when death approaches. To pray the Benedi...

Many thanks to The Critic for carrying my article for Holocaust Memorial Day, calling for it to be observed by Christians as a day of lament and penitence.  At the heart of the article is the suggestion that A Commination in BCP 1662 (or the alternative penitential liturgies in other versions of the Book of Common Prayer e.g. Ireland 1926 ) be used by Anglicans on this day as an expression of our penitence. 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,...

Amongst the general principles highlighted by the 2019 report by the Faith and Order Commission of the Church of England, God's Unfailing Word: Theological and Practical Perspectives on Christian-Jewish Relations , is a recognition of the "gift" of the relationship between Christianity and Judaism: The Christian–Jewish relationship is a gift of God to the Church, which is to be received with care, respect and gratitude, so that we may learn more fully about God’s purposes for us and all the world. This gift has, however, often shamefully been obscured or denied in the Church's life and witness, as recognised by a further general principle: Christians have been guilty of promoting and fostering negative stereotypes of Jewish people that have contributed to grave suffering and injustice. They therefore have a duty to be alert to the continuation of such stereotyping and to resist it. In light of these principles,  God's Unfailing Word rightly questions the status o...

Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany - John 12:1. And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David - Matthew 21:9. After two days was the feast of the passover, and of the unleavened bread - Mark 14:1. And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, This Is The King Of The Jews - Luke 23:38. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments, and rested the sabbath day according to the commandmen t - Luke 23:56. There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand - John 19:42. In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre - Matthew 28:1. ... that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me - Luke 24:44. The Church's proclamation of the...

To pray the Litany amidst the bleak pain and deep shame of Holocaust Memorial Day is to hear a profound challenge to Christian antisemitism, past and present. Remember not, Lord, our offences, nor the offences of our forefathers ... The dark shadow of antisemitism has long blighted and disfigured the Church's life: from anti-Semitic comments of Chrysostom to the blood libel in medieval Christendom, from Luther's vile sermons against the Jews to the contemporary antisemitism found in both progressive and 'radtrad' theologies.  The Anglican tradition has not been immune to this toxic virus.  Robert Ingram's study of Thomas Secker - the mid-18th century Archbishop of Canterbury - notes how Secker sought to defend the 1753 Jew Bill, which provided for the naturalisation of Jews as British Subjects, against a coalition which included "many Anglican clergy".  Secker lamented "the clerical assault on the Jew Bill", referring to their "astonishing ...