- The Church of England has chosen to give legitimacy to documents that demonise Israel and attack Christians who stand with the Jewish State.
- Kairos Palestine documents attack Christian Zionism, call for Christian and Jewish Zionist voices to be boycotted, and promote a deeply distorted view of Israel and the Jewish people.
- CUFI will not remain silent while Christians and Jews who stand with Israel are demonised and the Biblical foundations of the Christian faith are undermined.
Christians United for Israel (CUFI) wholly rejects the decision by the General Synod of the Church of England to encourage engagement with the Kairos Palestine documents.
The Kairos Palestine documents promote the demonisation of Israel and the Jewish people through lies and misinformation. They attack Christian believers who hold Biblical views on Israel. They make excuses for Palestinian terrorism and antisemitic hatred. These documents do nothing to promote peace and reconciliation but instead drive a wedge between Israel and the Church.
While the final agreed motion changed the word “receive” to “hear” in relation to the Kairos Palestine documents, the wording still explicitly states that Synod should “encourage the Church of England at all levels to engage with those documents”.
By elevating the voices of Kairos Palestine while failing to confront the deeply troubling theology and language contained within its documents, the Church of England has not only turned its back on Israel but, tragically, on the Biblical foundations of its own Christian faith.
The Kairos Palestine documents, including the recently published Kairos Palestine II, present a deeply distorted view of Israel, call support for Israel “sin” and “evil”, dismiss the Jewish connection to the Land, disregard the Jewish roots of Christianity and promote language that is deeply hostile to Zionism. They are driven by a narrative that blames Christian and Jewish Zionists for the welfare of Palestinian Christians while ignoring the negative effects of radical Islam within Palestinian society and the extent to which Christians in Israel are thriving. They also reject the Biblical and historical realities that underpin the Jewish people’s connection to the Land of Israel.
The Church of England’s decision is particularly concerning because the Kairos Palestine documents directly attack Christians. These documents rail against the Biblical view held by millions of Christians across the United Kingdom, including many within the Church of England: that the Jewish people have a Biblical, historical and legal right to live in the Land of Israel.
Kairos Palestine II explicitly applauds those who “have taken a religious and moral stand against Zionism and so-called Christian Zionism” (3.5). It libellously accuses Christian Zionism of producing “apartheid, ethnic cleansing and genocide of indigenous people” and describes it as “a theological and moral corruption” (3.7). It falsely claims to have made “all efforts to invite Christian Zionists to repentance” and then states that Christian Zionists should be “held accountable” and that “their ideology must be rejected and boycotted” (3.7).
The documents further call upon “the churches of the world to distinguish between dialogue with Jews and dialogue with Zionism” and, “indeed, to boycott dialogue with Zionist voices” (3.12). The language of “resistance” and the call to reject and boycott Zionist voices should be an indictment of the Church of England’s decision to encourage engagement with these documents. It is a threat that implies Christian Zionists are no longer welcome in the Church of England.
The Church of England must answer a simple question: how can a Church that claims to oppose antisemitism give such prominence to documents that explicitly call for the boycotting of all Zionist voices?
The answer is even more troubling when the impact on the Jewish community is considered. Kairos Palestine II explicitly targets Jewish Zionists. In Britain, the vast majority of Jews identify as Zionist. To condemn Zionism and Jewish Zionists in such terms has the potential to create a divide between Christians and Jews and to give further cover to antisemitism disguised as anti-Zionism. This is an appalling example for the Church of England to set.
The Christian Zionist view is based on love for Israel, not hatred of Palestinians. Christian Zionists are not dispassionate towards Palestinian Christians. But we will not remain silent when our beliefs are deliberately misrepresented, when Christians are demonised for supporting Israel, or when the Jewish people’s right to a homeland and the right of Israel to defend itself are treated as moral crimes.
The Church of England has now aligned itself with documents that say the Hamas attack of October 7th was “born out of decades of injustice, oppression and displacement” (1.6) and that Israel’s “claim of ‘self-defense’ cannot stand” (1.6).
This is morally indefensible.
The October 7th massacre was not an inevitable consequence of Israel’s existence or Israel’s actions. It was an act of demonic evil that should be utterly condemned. Hamas terrorists murdered, raped and kidnapped Jewish men, women and children because of their antisemitic hatred of Israel and the Jewish people. To frame the attack primarily through the lens of Palestinian grievance while denying Israel’s right to defend itself is to abandon moral clarity.
The documents also use theological language to advance a deeply distorted view of Israel and the Jewish people. Acceptance of the Kairos Palestine documents reflects the influence within the Church of England of replacement theology, the false doctrine that the Church has replaced Israel. Kairos Palestine positions itself as fighting for justice for “all humanity” by adopting universalist pluralistic language throughout, yet when referring to “our land”, it singles out two “indigenous” groups as rightful inheritors: Palestinian Christians and Palestinian Muslims. This omission of the Jewish roots of the Holy Land is deliberate and shameful. More than this, these documents claim that Palestinian Christians and Palestinian Muslims serve the same God. This is heresy.
The document also accuses Israel of “Judaizing” Jerusalem (1.3). Remarkably, it presents the Palestinian Church as being “witnesses to the Resurrection and to the empty tomb” (2.15), ignoring the obvious historical and theological reality that the first witnesses of the resurrection were Jewish disciples of Jesus, who Himself was a Jew.
Those who supported this motion must repent of promoting ungodly and unbiblical teachings, just as they must repent of turning their backs on Israel. This must happen before it is too late for the Church of England, because God will not forget this historic injustice against His people or the slanderous documents that target both Christians and Jews.
Through the promotion of these documents, the shepherds of the Church of England have opened the door to ungodliness within Anglican denominations and given it permission to lead the flock astray.
The road ahead will be challenging, but now more than ever Christians United for Israel is needed here in the United Kingdom. CUFI UK represents tens of thousands of Christians across many denominations and Church backgrounds who believe in the everlasting promises of God towards the Jewish people and who refuse to remain silent while the Word of God is undermined and Israel and those who support her are demonised.
CUFI calls upon the Archbishop of Canterbury to meet with CUFI leadership at the earliest possible opportunity. We also call upon the General Synod to withdraw its recommendation to engage with the Kairos Palestine documents and to enter into a more constructive dialogue so that both the Jewish community in Britain and Christian Zionists within the Anglican Church can be heard.
To Christian supporters of Israel, it is time to get equipped. CUFI is giving away copies of Why Christians Should Support Israel. These are free to anyone who requests them. Larger quantities are available with a recommended donation. Please email [email protected] with your name, address and the quantity required. You may also invite a CUFI speaker to your church to explain the Biblical reasons why Christians should stand with Israel as part of the wider efforts to rebut the theological and historical distortions exemplified in the Kairos Palestine documents. Please also consider supporting CUFI with a donation to help CUFI make a stronger stand for Israel in this nation.
For Zion’s sake, we will not remain silent.
