The desperate situation that has unfolded in Israel and Gaza from 7th October is heart-breaking, with still untold depths of suffering and trauma, death and destruction.
It is a highly complex situation with roots deep in history. No human words spoken into it will be adequate to that complexity and suffering. They may well cause offence to some by what they say or by what they don’t say. Silence, though, can be worse even than words that will inevitably fall short in some way. This is why as the House of Bishops of the Church of England we have made this Statement on the war in Gaza.
It is an Appeal for Peace.
The Appeal is undergirded by prayer. Prayer for the Divine Word that we hear from the prophet Isaiah, from the God who ‘shall judge between the nations and shall arbitrate for many peoples’ so that they find it within themselves to ‘beat their swords into ploughshares’ and ‘learn war no more’ (Isaiah 2.4). That is why we pray as Jesus taught us, for God’s kingdom to come, for his righteous will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
And as we pray that prayer, let us join it with the Coventry Prayer, that takes the words of Jesus prayed at a point of intense suffering and invites each of us to stand in humility before God and pray them for ourselves and for the whole of humanity: ‘Father, forgive’.
The House of Bishops' Statement on the war in Gaza
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The Archbishops of Canterbury and Jerusalem, Justin Welby and Hosam Naoum, have issued a joint emergency appeal for the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem. The international appeal calls for prayers and donations not only for the work of the Anglican-run al-Ahli Arab Hospital’s vital work in Gaza, but also for the Diocese of Jerusalem’s ministries throughout the Holy Land which are also being greatly affected.
You can donate via The Jerusalem and The Middle East Church Association website
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