“At the heart of reconciliation is the need for all Christians to take seriously their relationship with the Jewish people.”
Canon Andrew White in “Father, Forgive: Reflections on Peacemaking” p122)
In May this year I went to Kiev to speak at a Toward Jerusalem Council II conference promoting reconciliation between Eastern and Western churches, a 1000 year old church split that underlies the cultural divisions at work in Ukraine and Russia today. The conference was hosted by the Kiev Messianic Jewish Synagogue and this brought to the conference an even more ancient church split – between Jew and Gentile in Christ. As Canon Andrew White, the Vicar of Bagdad, makes clear, true Christian reconciliation and unity will, in the end, have to include Jewish believers in Jesus into the mix. Without them, as the film suggests, ‘There’s something missing …’.
Derek Butler came with me and together we made this film about the people we met, the event itself, and the need to grasp this call for reconciliation in our broken world.
On Sunday morning 7th September, in both our services, we will have a time of worship, show the film, talk some more about it and, as usual at the 9.00am service on the first Sunday of the month, include Holy Communion.
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