Church Times. 24 January 2020
THE 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz should be used
“to come before God in worship, conscious of our need for forgiveness,
but committed to action that would seek the common flourishing of all”,
the Archbishop of Canterbury has said.
In a statement released this week, in advance of Holocaust
Memorial Day on Monday, Archbishop Welby said: “The Holocaust, the
Shoah, remains a unique stain on the history of Europe, and a chilling
reminder to me of how millennia of Christian anti-Jewish hatred could
provide a seedbed for such evil.”
The Council of Christians and Jews (CCJ) has released a prayer for this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day. It was launched at an event in the House of the Lords on Monday, where it was read by the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally.
The chair of the CCJ, the Bishop of Lichfield,
Dr Michael Ipgrave, said: “Through prayer, we will be asking Christians
to remember the pains of the past, and to recommit to a better future
for all people, and, in particular, of course, to commit themselves to
combating anti-Semitism, which is such a scourge in our society and our world.”
The chief executive of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT),
Olivia Marks-Woldman, said: “This year, we reflect on the theme ‘Stand
Together’. In the run-up to the Holocaust, and in each subsequent
genocide, perpetrators took deliberate steps to stop their designated
victims living, studying, and working alongside their neighbours.
Communities were stopped from being together.
“And, today, we know
that prejudice and hostility based on faith or identity is still
prevalent in many areas. Indeed, in some cases, it is even on the
increase. We need to show solidarity to others.”
No comments:
Post a Comment