by Rev. Timothy Butlin
| During 2018, three elements of our TJCII UK work have made headway. First, my co-director of TJCII UK, Messianic Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Allen, was awarded his Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy). His Ph.D. research findings on how the gentile ‘church world’ responds to Jewish identity once a Jewish person comes to faith in Messiah were predictably negative. The church in the UK is strongly assimilationist. Messianic believers in the UK who affirm their Jewish identity face general cultural hostility against Israel. They also face an incredulity that anyone who trusts in Jesus/Yeshua would want a different expression of identity, and if they did want to identify as being Jewish, “Why?”. Dr. Allen’s research picture is a clear demonstration of the situation that TJCII exists to solve, now seen not only anecdotally but in a proven and published record. Second, Dominic McDermott is opening in-roads into the Roman Catholic community. Dominic has been on TJCII Intercessory visits to Israel & Portugal and is now our UK co-leader, developing TJCII intercession and involvement in the UK. Following Fr. Peter Hocken’s ‘promotion’ to glory, there has been a gap in our ability to connect into the UK’s Roman Catholic leadership. Archbishop McDonald, a friend of Fr. Peter, pledged support to TJCII insofar as he is able in his current role leading English Catholics into renewal. Thirdly, Dominic is planning a service of representative confession and reconciliation for a historic wrong in expelling the Jews from High Wycombe in 1234 CE. All the dark memes of European hostility against Jews have surfaced at one time or another. Hopefully, in the first quarter of 2019, we will re-lay the town’s spiritual foundations during a formal service with the Mayor, leading politicians, the Lord Lieutenant representing the Queen (as the original expulsion of Wycombe’s Jews in 1234 CE was by order of King Henry III 1216-1272) and with representatives of church denominations across the town. This will take place in All Saints, the town centre church whose current Rector is chaplain to the Mayor and a Jewish believer. The prayer need now is to agree upon a date with the church and with the people who are involved. You can check this link for additional information: https://www.woolf.cam.ac.uk/blog/promoting-reconciliation-through-repentance |
Rev. Timothy Butlin
Director of TJCII UK
| Tim is from the UK, of English-Irish descent, a fifth generation Anglican priest. He holds a master’s degree in Applied Theology. After a short time teaching in the UK, he became a founding teacher of the Immanuel House Study Centre, Jaffa-Tel Aviv, under the Israel Trust of the Anglican Church before returning to over 30 years of ministry in the Diocese of Oxford. He served on the Board of CMJ (Church’s Ministry Among Jewish People) and was a participant in the Lambeth Jewish Forum dialogue. He has been the Director of TJCII UK since 2008. Currently, he devotes his time teaching and supporting TJCII and Christians in Government (CiG). |
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