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Anglican, Bapist, Methodist, 1 Cuddesdon Way, Tel/Fax: 01865 396241 |
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It is twenty years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, which separated the East from the West. It was one of the memorable and most hopeful events of our times, opening up the possibility of the reunification of the modern Germany, and more normal relations with the countries beyond ‘the iron curtain’. We may recall other events of our times, that seemed a break-through from an imprisoned state of mind, full of hope for a new world order – the release of Nelson Mandela, and the end of the apartheid divisions of South Africa; the Good Friday agreements about Northern Ireland, and the removal of the barricades in Belfast; even the demolition of the Cutteslowe Wall in our own city! And we may wonder how things might have been if these barriers had not been erected in the first place. Some of us have recently returned from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. We encountered the new wall, nine metres high, ugly concrete panels and barbed wire, separating Israel from the Palestinian (occupied) territories. Going the short journey to Bethlehem or Bethany meant a stop at the check-point, showing passports, being searched by teenage soldiers, a finger on the trigger of their heavy rifles, possibly getting off the bus and walking through security. It was an inconvenience, but nothing compared with the humiliation, restrictions and arbitrary treatment of Palestinians, like our guide, who could not come back with us to Jerusalem through that check-point. If we leave aside Gaza, which we did not visit, and the atrocities of hatred on both sides of the divide, what is the Wall all about? It does not follow a legal border, such as the borders of 1948; it is built largely on Palestinian territory, annexing into Israeli control the whole of Arab East Jerusalem, and the Jewish settlements spreading over the hills in the occupied territories. Is it working towards a greater apartheid, a two-state solution, in which all Jewish Israelis are on one side of the wall, and all Arab Israelis and non-Israelis on the other, with Israel keeping iron-grip control over access, water supplies, building supplies, sea and air ports? And access to the old walled city of Jerusalem, and the sites sacred to the three Abrahamic faiths? Could there be another solution, with acknowledgement of injustices and atrocities past, a full recognition of Israel’s right to exist in secure borders, and equally the right of Palestinians to exist in their homeland as equal citizens? Building the Wall was easier than tearing it down. It was the astonishing discovery of the earliest Christians that the greatest human divisions counted for nothing. “In Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring.” (Galatians 3:26-29) The letter to the Ephesians thinks of a wall being broken down – “Now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us… that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace” (3:14-16). One of the Old Testament Prophets looked forward to the new Jerusalem after destruction and exile - “Jerusalem shall be inhabited like villages without walls, because of the multitude of people and animals in it. For I will be a wall of fire all around it, says the LORD, and I will be the glory within it."(Zechariah 2:4-5). O pray for the peace of Jerusalem. David Parry |
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Thought for the Month |
