Assembly '97 News Home page Documents next story		Jewish relations moving ahead Tuesday, July 8 "This morning has been a time for weeping," said Janet Woods, Chairperson of the Commission for Mission. She seemed to be summing up the mood of the morning session on reconciliation. Yet her comment, came amid the presentation on relations with other faiths. Assembly learned reconciliation was more than black white relations in Australia — it encompasses Jewish and Christian relations as well. Assembly participants experienced some of the complexities and frustrations of Middle East politics as concerns with Palestinian justice mixed with emotional words like 'homeland' and genocide' as a form of words needed to be found which respected Jewish aspirations for Israel and the need for justice for Palestinian peoples. Reconciliation is hard work. Yet that work has reached a level in the Uniting Church where the Assembly's Task Group on Jewish-Christian Relations presented, 'A statement inviting the Uniting Church to dialogue with the Jewish Community'. The statement asks the church to seek a relationship with Jewish people and to challenge the "cliches and stereotypes" of Jewish culture. It is time to move into a process of "genuine open relationship" with the Jewish community. This would mean the church accepting that at times in its history Christian theology, preaching and practise has been influenced by the erroneous idea that "the Jewish people and Judaism were rejected by God and superseded by Christians and the Church". Whilst accepting the need for dialogue, the task group is convinced "that there remains particular doctrines which are central to Christian faith, especially the doctrine of the Trinity and the belief that Jesus is the Christ." The statement sets out a series of nine questions which will the Church like, 'What might we learn from Jewish people and Judaism' and "What we have we done by intent or ignorance The goal of the process is to develop a "deep and genuine" relationship that will bring reconciliation and justice for all. To aid the process the task group has purchased 500 copies of a video, "From Cross to Swastika" for parishes to view so that they may understand how Christian teaching helped form the political climate that produced the growth of National Socialism in Germany. During the debate at the presentation of the report Assembly was reminded that the events of the holocaust (called the shoah by Jewish people) had their precedents by Christian communities in the progroms as long ago as the seventh and eighth centuries . The pain caused by Christians needs more forgiving, yet. More work needed to be done before Assembly will accept all the recommendations of the task group, one suspects it will take many more words for healing.