Time was when I was a half decent singer. Fifty years ago, I sang tenor and was fortunate to be part of the Bournemouth Sinfonietta Choir. This was a valuable source of relaxation for me because, as Curate of an Anglican Church in Poole, ministry life was pretty hectic!
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For many, the original Christian meaning of Christmas has been lost among the tinsel, revelry and mammon overkill. What still remains can be tinged by nostalgic ritual or even over-familiarity. Where is the birth of our Messiah among this? Where is the clear image of the miracle of the Incarnation? Is there a way to reclaim the core events and understanding among the noise that surrounds it? Or should we just wipe our hands of it and concede defeat to our secular society, which has hijacked it and converted it into a festival of over-indulgence?
British Jews and many other British nationals were shocked and dismayed with the outcome of last week’s general election in the UK.
Contrary to expectations, Prime Minister Theresa May emerged with a staggering defeat, and Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party — which dramatically increased its number of seats in parliament by almost 10% — ran almost neck and neck with the Conservative Party. May is now trying to maintain her minority government by aligning with the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland.
It is a horrifying prospect that Corbyn — a man who has publicly praised Hamas and Hezbollah as his “friends;” who attended a ceremony in Tunis commemorating the murderer of Israeli Olympic athletes; who was employed by the state-controlled Iranian TV to present programs; and who tolerated the proliferation of overt antisemitism in his party — nearly became prime minister.
When the unimaginable happens and your world turns upside-down, where can you find certainty?
In the middle of the Eighteenth Century, Lisbon was perhaps the wealthiest city in Europe, the third busiest port in the World and the centre of the mighty Portuguese empire. It was also one of the most “religious” Catholic cities in the World. Its seven hills were replete with churches, chapels and monasteries, dripping with trappings of wealth and prosperity, their altars adorned with gold, silver and precious gems..
by Hillel Fendel
Close to 50 members of Amish Christian communities in the U.S.and Switzerland visited Israel last week for one reason: To apologize to the Jewish People.
The Ministry of Tourism announced that Bishop Ben Girod, of the Amish community in Idaho, led the delegation in submitting an official apology for having rejected Israel and the Jews.
Dear Prime Minister, It was sickening to see that your government last week voted for the declaration of diplomatic war against Israel embodied in resolution 2334 passed by the UN Security Council. Bad enough that Britain didn’t use its position as a permanent SC member to vote against this vicious resolution and thereby stop it in its tracks. Worse, far worse was that your government voted for it. In doing so, Britain signed up to propositions that repudiate law, justice and truth. Now reports have surfaced that, yet more appallingly, Britain was actually instrumental in getting 2334 passed by helping draft the resolution and then stiffening New Zealand’s resolve in proposing it. I don’t know whether that is correct. I suspect it may well be. I think, nevertheless, that you spoke from the heart the other week when you told the Conservative Friends of Israel of your admiration for Israel as a “remarkable country” and a “beacon of tolerance” and your warm feelings towards the Jewish people.
The significance in Gerald's case was not that he'd been an absent friend. Quite the reverse, really, as we'd been meeting at the same coffee bar in Leicester Square every Thursday fortnight for years now. Over the years Gerald had stubbornly refused all invitations at this time of year. It wasn't that he was purposely being rude, it was that, although, physically, he was as Jewish as chopped liver, Gerald was a confirmed atheist.
In the last few decades, some Christian theologians and preachers have insisted that the people and land of Israel are not significant for either the New Testament or the Church.
Antisemitism is an insidious evil. The habits of antisemitism have been burrowing into European and British culture for as long as we can remember. In England, during the late mediaeval period, the Jewish community faced constant persecution: Shylock, the great villain of the Merchant of Venice, was a cliché of his time. By the time Cromwell reopened England to Jewish settlement under the Commonwealth in the 1650s, antisemitism had mutated within common parlance and culture.
It is a shameful truth that, through its theological teachings, the church, which should have offered an antidote, compounded the spread of this virus. The fact that antisemitism has infected the body of the Church is something of which we as Christians must be deeply repentant. We live with the consequences of our history of denial and complicity.
RABBI CRAWFORD answers ...
Run in the other direction- as fast as a gazelle! Anyone who calls himself/herself a prophet is a self proclaimed liar. In the TaNaK, the prophets were killed, sawed in half etc. If they were spewing stuff about their prophetic gifts and were about to be sawed in two- they would recant- most of these people do not have any such gifts. I have heard of a few who dream dreams which in the near future, were on target- but those people never ran around claiming to be prophets that I know of.
RABBI GUTMANN answers ...