A call for support for the UK National Methodist Conference

The UK national Methodist conference scheduled to be held in Portsmouth from 24 June to 1 July, will consider and vote on a document titled Justice for Palestine and Israel. The 54-page document written up by a working group consisting of Methodist clergy, academics and peace activists will present important proposals including the boycott of settlement goods, endorsing the "Kairos" document, investigating the theology of Christian Zionism and political lobbying to end Israel's occupation and the "siege of Gaza". It has been distributed to all Methodist churches, circuits and regions throughout the UK in order to “resource them in their understanding of and engagement with the issues,” the document described.

The church, the fourth largest Christian denomination in Britain, is now faced with a campaign of intimidation aimed at scuttling the decision and arguing that the document could damage Jewish-Methodist relations in the UK.  The document is described as being selective and “full of historical distortions and bias.”

The campaign also targets the WCC and one of its Middle East programmes, the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). It accuses the EAPPI members of “promoting anti-Israel agendas under the facade of peace”, according to NGO Monitor President Prof. Gerald Steinberg said. The EAPPI provide protective presence to vulnerable communities, monitor and report human rights abuses and support Palestinians and Israelis working together for peace. 

In 2007, the WCC created the Palestine-Israel Ecumenical Forum Churches (PIEF), which has repeatedly called members churches for an end to words and to choose action in the form of ‘costly solidarity’. It has strongly affirmed that "the role of the churches is to heal and to bring all sides to reconciliation".

Campaigners against the UK National Methodist Conference move argue that, in general, “Christian groups that promote anti-Israel demonization and international isolation display a very disturbing insensitivity and fuel the conflict.”

Those who understand the campaign disagree and assert their claim that “the working group’s humane and principled conclusions have been misrepresented and attacked by those who empty powerful terms like ‘coexistence’ and ‘reconciliation’ of their true meaning. They add: “Coexistence is not advanced by the bulldozer’s blade as it demolishes Palestinian homes and uproots olive trees; nor is reconciliation furthered by segregation and a decades-long militarised regime of control.”

The UK Methodist Justice for Palestine and Israel document underlines that, “in the belief that peace and reconciliation depend upon justice, fairness and mercy, the Methodist Church has consistently expressed its concern over the illegal Occupation of Palestinian lands by the State of Israel. That Occupation continues not only compounds the state’s illegal and immoral action but also makes any accommodation with the Palestinian people and future peace in the region much less possible.” 

The document underscores the importance for Methodists to reflect more deeply on the meaning of covenant and differentiate the Israel they read about in their Bibles from the modern State of Israel they see in modern news footage, while affirming that “it sits uncomfortably with many modern Methodists to imagine a God who singles out individuals or groups in order to promise possessions”, for it seems to conjure up “a notion of favouritism, with an image of God dispossessing some peoples in order to grant land to his chosen ones.” 

In this context, the document states that “at the very heart of the Hebrew Bible’s concept of covenant is the notion of a relationship and with it, a set of responsibilities. We recognize that there is still greater understanding needed on the relationship between the spiritual and the material to ensure that faith is able to express itself in public. Methodists would want to reiterate with Jews and Muslims alike, the central tenet that believers are committed to a life of love in action to all.”

The UK Methodist church has listened to the cry for solidarity of Palestinian Christians as expressed in the Kairos document and is consequently responding to that call, convinced that a just peace for Palestine will mean peace and security for Israelis.  Now is a time for action!

We kindly urge PIEF members and all EAs to support the initiative and to show this support by writing to the Revd David Gamble, President of the UK National Methodist Conference (david.gamble5@btinternet.com).

“Learn to do what is right! Promote justice! Give the oppressed reason to celebrate!Take up the cause of the orphan! Defend the rights of the widow!   (Isaiah 1, 17)

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