The Board of Deputies has agreed to explore the possibility of further dialogue with the Anglican Church following a meeting with Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby on Tuesday prompted by concern over an article he had co-written on Palestinian Christians.
The article, which appeared in the Sunday Times in December, highlighted extremist attacks on Christian sites and clergy as a reason for the decline of Palestinian Christians.
But Board president Marie van der Zyl took issue with “troubling” pasages in the article which included linking the departure of Christians from the Holy Land to the growth of settler communities and the West Bank separation barrier.
Following her call for a meeting, the Archbishop hosted her and Board chief executive Michael Wegier at Lambeth Palace this week. They were joined via video link by the article’s co-author Hosam Naoum, the Anglican Archbishop of Jerusalem.
According to both sides, they discussed issues affecting Christians in the Old City of Jerusalem as well as those of concern to UK Jewry, along with the importance of “honest dialogue, even around difficult issues”.
The archbishop underlined “his ongoing commitment to working together with the Jewish community to combat antisemitism and to Holocaust education and remembrance, and the application of the IHRA definition”.
They agreed to explore setting up an informal working group to develop “significant opportunities for deeper connection between the UK Jewish community and the Church of England, and with Christian communities in Israel”. These would focus on “dialogue, education and engagement”.
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The Patriarch of Jerusalem is spreading false and incendiary claims about my city
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