The Council of Christians and Jews (CCJ) Study Tour to Poland for Christian Leaders

The Council of Christians and Jews (CCJ) are currently leading a group of senior Christians leaders on a unique study tour to Poland, in partnership with Taube Jewish Heritage Tours. The programme explores the history of Jewish life in the country, before, during and after the Second World War – a journey which is taking us from Warsaw to Lodz, Krakow, and Auschwitz-Birkenau.

CCJ have gathered a group of Christian leaders from across the UK to take part in this journey. The participants are all leaders in their communities, including Bishops and Ministers, Trustees, Chaplains, and Theologians. They have wide and varied spheres of influences across Christian communities. Denominations within the group include the United Reformed Church, the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Church of Scotland, the Methodist Church, and the Church of God of Prophecy.

This programme has several aims. Firstly, this programme seeks to educate participants about Jewish life in Poland before, during, and after the Second World War. Tragically, at the heart of this history is the Holocaust. We have been visiting sites related to the Shoah, including ghettos, deportation stations and on Thursday 26th October we will visit Auschwitz-Birkenau. We are also exploring the 1000 years of Jewish history in Poland, looking at the rich history of Jewish life which was lost in the Holocaust, and celebrating contemporary Jewish life by visiting synagogues, Jewish community centres and participating in a Shabbat meal in Krakow on Friday 27th October.

The second aim is to learn about Christian-Jewish relations in Poland. We are exploring the history of Christian-Jewish relations in the country, and discussing how this is relevant for understanding the Holocaust. Through meeting with senior Christian and Jewish leaders, including the Chief Rabbi of Poland (whom we met on Tuesday 24th October), we are discussing contemporary challenges in Christian-Jewish relations as well as positive examples of interfaith engagement which seek to overcome centuries of Christian persecution of Jews.

The final aim is to explore contemporary issues in Poland. We are uncovering how the memory of the Holocaust intersects with other contemporary issues, particularly around identity-based discrimination and the curation of memory. We will ask how Poland maintains the memory of the Holocaust, and how is this framed.

Through this programme, we hope that the participants will be equipped with a deeper appreciation and understanding of Jewish life and identity, a detailed knowledge of the events of the Holocaust, and that they will be inspired to foster positive interfaith relations between Christians and Jews back home in the UK.

This programme sits at the heart of CCJ’s mission and values.

The Council of Christians and Jews was founded in 1942, at the height of the Second World War and the Holocaust, by Archbishop William Temple and Chief Rabbi Joseph Hertz. Today we are the leading nationwide forum for Christian-Jewish engagement.

For over 80 years, we have been engaging Jewish and Christian communities across the UK in education, dialogue, and social change. We aim to celebrate the history and diversity of both communities, to enable meaningful educational experiences, to facilitate constructive dialogue, and provide opportunities for transformative social change.

Today, CCJ is the only organisation in the UK which provides Holocaust education tailored specifically for the Christian community. By learning about the Holocaust and equipping church leaders to be witnesses to the devastations of the Holocaust and bring this back to their communities. We aspire to commemorate the past and transform Christian-Jewish relations for the future.

We are conscious of the vital importance of this work at a time where interfaith relations are being strained by violence throughout the world. The need to learn from the past, to listen to ‘the other’, and for people of faith to walk together remains as vital as ever.

We are grateful to the generosity of our funders for this programme, and without them it would not have been possible: the Claims Conference, the Association of Jewish Refugees, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain, and the United Reformed Church Interfaith Fund.

For more information about the work of CCJ please visit here.

Photo credit to CCJ.

All you wanted to know about schools but were afraid to ask

A Free Webinar, TUESDAY 14 NOVEMBER, 7 - 8.30 P.M.

Our member churches have told us that they would like to know more about what goes on in schools today and that building relationships with local schools is important to them.

“All you wanted to know about schools but were afraid to ask” is a free webinar that aims to equip you with an understanding of what goes on in schools, and to help you think about how you might get to know the schools in your community. It’s for anyone who wants to know more about schools.

Bev Smith, our speaker, is Schools Content Manager for Youth for Christ, and has many years of experience as a teacher, and in roles that build relationships between churches and schools.

Please circulate the details of the webinar to your churches and encourage your members to join us.

Register HERE.

The flyer is available to download HERE.

FCG statement on Israel-Palestine

We are heart-broken by the escalation of violence in Israel and Palestine.

The horror of the attack on Jewish communities in Israel by the terrorists of Hamas is beyond words. The humanitarian crisis facing the people of Gaza is appalling. We are greatly concerned for the innocent civilians of Gaza suffering as a consequence of the evil acts of Hamas. We in the Free Churches Group join with others to urge the Israeli government to seek to protect innocent lives wherever possible. We plead that humanitarian assistance is provided to all who suffer.

In our own country, we call for resistance against all antisemitic attacks for the protection for all Jewish communities. We look for visible action by Christian communities to reach out to their neighbours as people of light, and hope, who are called to be peacemakers, resisting hatred and violence.

We encourage Christians to pray for peace and comfort for all.

You may find the following links to resources, prayers, and articles compiled by the Council of Christians and Jews helpful:

• A CCJ message from Georgina and Nathan can be found on the CCJ website here.

• A collection of statements and prayers gathered by CTBI can be found here.

• An article from CCJ Senior Programme Manager, Dr James Roberts can be found here.

• The Diocese of London statement which includes a prayer by the Archbishop, Hosam Naoum of Jerusalem can be found here.

Luke 5: 18 -19 - Through the Roof

“Just then some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a stretcher. They were trying to bring him in and lay him before Jesus,[e] 19 but, finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down on the stretcher through the tiles into the middle of the crowd[f] in front of Jesus.”

Reflection from Revd Helen Cameron, Moderator of the Free Churches Group

One of the most enjoyable things about being Moderator of the Free Churches Group is the connections that can be made. I was glad to travel to Wales to join my sisters and brothers in Free Church leadership there for conversation and careful listening about their perspectives and context particularly concerning issues of language and culture. It was an interesting day not just to talk to a wide range of leaders in Free Churches in Wales but also to see a frontline project addressing poverty in creative ways. I was then asked that day If I would be willing to lead a workshop for Welsh Baptist Ministers addressing themes of rest and restoration. Someone heard a recording of that webinar and then made contact with me directly. This was Katie Mobbs – Through the Roof Roofbreaker Team Leader and Co-ordinator for Wales, West and South West of England

Katie is Team Leader for the Through the Roof “Roofbreaker” project which aims to equip, encourage and resource volunteer disability champions in churches and ministries across the UK. She also has a particular focus on reaching churches in Wales, West and South West England. Katie is based in Cardiff and has Cerebral Palsy and is a wheelchair user. She has a background in health and social care law and disability advocacy in the public and third sector. Katie works alongside people with a range of disabilities and access needs, through her work with Through the Roof and in her local church. 

Contact and conversation with Katie and her colleagues allowed me to reflect personally about issues of access, belonging and inclusion in the life of the local Church as well as issues of policy and advocacy around full participation of all people in the life of the church at every level. In the webinar I led I had spoken quite personally about how issues of neurodivergences for someone close to me affected how they could ever feel included, welcome and be confident that they belonged at work, at leisure and perhaps most importantly for them, at church and in their faith and spirituality. I was used, as a former physiotherapist, to considering how someone with reduced mobility might need church to create flat and level paths, entrances and worship spaces. I was also used, as a teacher, in ministerial formation to consider carefully how students who were visually or hearing impaired might access their learning equally with their peers. Dyslexic students explained to me what would help them learn and how their patterns of thinking enabled a profound creativity. I was enriched in my teaching by what they asked me to consider. My fairly clear diction when speaking results, I remain convinced, from the fact that my mother for many years while I was learning to preach was profoundly if temporarily deaf. She would sit near the front and lip read. I learned not to cover my mouth or turn away to utter an aside. 

Photo courtesy from Throughtheroof.org.

What Katie helped me consider is what it takes for us to raise our voices as champions, as advocates and as those willing to become “Roofbreakers”, those willing to dismantle barriers to inclusion. Personal experience may alert us to some blockages and barriers but the kind of change and transformation required seems to require our whole attention to the imperative provided to us by God in terms of God’s will and purpose for the whole of creation. So in Isaiah 1:17 ( NIV) we read the words of the prophet to the people,

“Learn justice, do what is right and defend the oppressed”.

Our faith must be a lived reality others can experience. Love is what justice looks like in public.

So I have signed up to become a Roofbreaker, an advocate for the full participation of people in our churches and I wonder if you might too. A free webinar is offered to churches when a member signs up as a Roofbreaker advocate.

I wonder too if you mark Disability Awareness Sunday in your church?

In 2023, the date publicised for Disability Awareness Sunday was Sunday 17th September. But any Sunday can be Disability Awareness Sunday! So it is never too late to celebrate, and join the hundreds of churches across the UK - and the world - to share about church disability inclusion. There are 16 million disabled people in the UK (Family Resources Survey 2021-22) who need to know churches are supportive places to experience God’s love.

Over 20% of the UK's population are disabled people (Family Resources Survey, 2021-22). Not all disabilities are visible, but disabled people are still under-represented in UK churches – especially in positions of responsibility.

I am so glad that Katie Mobbs contacted me, so glad to be able to invite the Free Churches Group to consider this issue and to encourage you to draw on the excellent free resources of the Through the Roof Trust.

Find out more about the blessings and benefits of joining over 600 Roofbreaker disability champions in UK churches here.

 Helen Dixon Cameron

Moderator of the Free Churches Group

The Ideas-informed Society: Why we need it and how to make it happen

A new book edited by the Chair of the Free Church Education Committee, Professor Graham Handscomb, and with chapters by our Moderator, Helen Cameron, and Sir Les Ebdon, a member of the Free Church Education Committee.

With a foreword by Sir Anthony Seldon, The Ideas-Informed Society explores how, in order to thrive, society needs citizens who actively engage in new ideas, particularly as Western societies find themselves in the midst of environmental, social and political crises in a volatile world.

 You can read more about The Ideas-Informed Society Here.