As one of his first overseas tours as Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby visited the Holy Land in early July as part of his priority to visit the Bishops of the Anglican Communion.
According to the rector of Christ Church Jerusalem, two things are required of any senior figure coming to the Holy Land — to be fair, be empathetic and not say anything stupid. By this measure his visit was a success, according to the Rev. David Pileggi, who met the Archbishop along with other Anglican leaders when he spoke in the Peace Garden in St. George’s Cathedral.
Previous disquiet
Archbishop Welby is no stranger to Jerusalem as he and his wife Caroline spent their honeymoon there. His visit was well timed. The Church of England has had a difficult time being even-handed in the affairs of the Holy Land.
Two debates in General Synod in the last eight years caused considerable disquiet among Jewish leaders: the first was over the use of the Caterpillar company’s machinery by the State of Israel; and the second was about the Ecumenical Assistance Programme to Palestine and Israel (EAPPI).
Following the second debate, I met an official of the Jewish Board of Deputies who was very surprised to learn, given the criticism in Synod of the State of Israel, that members of the Church of England honoured the Hebrew Bible as the Word of God.
So a balance needed to be redressed. Archbishop Justin issued a statement following his appointment, regretting his vote for the Synod motion applauding the EAPPI, out of lack of information. Now he has visited the Holy Land in his official capacity and made a clear statement of Israel’s right to exist.
Left out
The inevitable criticism came from Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem who were offended that Archbishop Justin had not included them in his itinerary.
They have a strong case. A security barrier and checkpoint separates them from their places of work, friends and family. Many are being forced by sheer economic pressure to leave their homes and livelihoods. The Christian population of the town of Jesus’s birth has declined in the last ten years. But they do have powerful friends, as their complaint about Archbishop Justin’s visit was fed through to Lambeth Palace very quickly and appeared in the Guardian and on Al-Jazeera almost before Archbishop Justin had returned to the UK.
Archbishop Welby insisted that this visit was to the Bishop of Jerusalem. He will return to the Holy Land in the future when he will have the opportunity to become better acquainted with the different Christian communities — Palestinian, Israeli, Arab and hopefully even Jewish. But this visit was not to all the Christian communities in the Holy Land. There are no Anglicans in Bethlehem. He did not even visit all the Anglican churches in Jerusalem.
Treading on toes
He did go to see Palestinian Christians in Ramallah, also the other side of a large wall and checkpoint. He wrote in the Church Times on his return: ‘In the Holy Land, it is impossible to say anything without treading on toes, or to go anywhere without some people feeling that you should not have, or that somewhere else was more important’.
He argued that it would be ‘absurd to imagine that there are simple solutions to the total absence of trust that prevents progress towards peace... Both sides are eloquent about the reasons for the fear and insecurity. Going through checkpoints and hearing of the indignities suffered daily by many Palestinians explains much. So does visiting Yad Vashem, or hearing from those who have endured rocket fire’.
No formal press conference
An as yet unanswered question is why the Archbishop did not give any formal press conferences while in the Holy Land. So the only story to come from the initiative was the negative one from Bethlehem. A closed door strategy seems to have backfired and it is hard to believe that the Archbishop himself was responsible for it.
His response to the hacking to death of Lee Rigby — a strong statement with Muslim leaders — was widely appreciated. It is to be hoped that the work of his office of mediation, led by Canon David Porter, will be able to maintain their surefooted approach in the Middle East in months to come — to be fair, empathetic and not to say anything stupid.
