Sorry, that line should say “consult with a group like jewsforjesus.org”.

I perused your apology for the change in the Prayer Book Society’s newsletter. I am concerned that you refuse to use the name of Jesus in the prayer, apparently in deference to the wishes of your consultants. Perhaps you could consult with a group like instead?
You know that it is said “there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) And He said Himself that “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:38)
If the letter to the Hebrews doesn’t convince you the the old covenant is finished (e.g. at chapter 8:6-13), then I would like to know how you understand Paul’s argument in Galations 4:22-5:1.
You know the story from John’s gospel, that “The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.”. (John 19:21) Paul says of Israel (and of us), “Just as you who formerly disobeyed God have now received mercy through their disobedience, so they too have now disobeyed, in order that they too may now receive mercy through the mercy shown to you.” (Rom 11:30-31)
Forgive me if I repeat myself, my previous post was apparently waylaid.

I am a supersessionist. “By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.” Heb 8:13
I think those people who reject Christ worship God in vain, for all the good they do. “Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist–denying the Father and the Son.” 1 John 2:22
If you wish to suggest that this understanding led to the holocaust, I’d have to disagree with you. WW2 was the tribal German people casting out a foreign tribe of Semitic people. Religion may have been a convenient excuse. You find much the same thing in the OT when the Egyptian Jewish refugees entered the “promised land” and subjugated (or exterminated) the local tribes. Back then they said it was because those tribes refused to worship YHWH.
If the church is now teaching that the Jewish people will somehow be saved without Jesus, you’ll want to start printing edited bibles. “For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. And if what was transitory came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!” (2 Cor 3:10-11)
I abhor that the holocaust has led to the “State of Israel” because of what has been done to the Palestinian people. And if you adopt a scientific secular view, this will all appear as pointless as it really is.

I really appreciate your response, Ian. It is biblically astute and presents a good challenge to the new prayer.

My main objection would be to this sentence in your final paragraph: ‘Do we need to be sensitive when we reach out to others? Of course! ‘ This does not sufficiently account for the Church’s long and shameful record of ‘violence and wickedness’ against the Jews over the past 2000 years. Surely something more than merely being ‘sensitive’ is required on our part.

In the words of Peter Kreeft: ‘What Jew finds the road to [Jesus] free from the broken weapons of bloody prejudice? We have made it nearly impossible for His own people to love Him, to see Him as He is, free from the smoke of battle and holocaust.’

I would love to continue the conversation with you and would be especially be curious to know what you think of this more fulsome rationale for the new prayer:
http://prayerbook.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/PBSC-Newsletter-Lent-2019.pdf

Blessings for Passiontide

As I understand it, neither Judaism nor Islam allow Jesus to be God, but that is what we teach. As John says, “No one who denies the Son has the Father, whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.” (1 John 2:23)

The writer of the ‘Letter to the Hebrews’ is not ashamed to say that Jesus’ covenant is better than that of Moses (Heb 8:6-13) and replaces it (Heb 7:18). Neither is Paul (2 Cor 3:6-16).

The idea that we as a church should “stop singling out Jews…for our evangelistic efforts” ignores the direction Paul takes with his olive tree metaphor in Romans. Of those who were “broken off because of unbelief” he says, “how much more readily will these, the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree.” (Rom 11.24)

At His birth, wise men from the east came in search of “the one who has been born King of the Jews”. At His crucifixion the sign over his head read “This is the King of the Jews”.

Do we need to be sensitive when we reach out to others? Of course! But we don’t need to cover up our crucifixes or deny the foundation of our faith. Do we look forward to the day when every knee will bow and every tongue confess the Lord Jesus? (Phi 2:10-11) So then, how are we to be “the aroma of Christ” (2 Cor 2:15) in an increasingly scent-free world?

Yet once Jesus came into the picture there came the new covenant and salvation came only through Jesus Christ .Jews as well as all other peoples and religions can only come to God through Christ.

Hi Mary Louise. Rather than speaking of a universal ‘Divine Mystery,’ I would argue that Jews and Christians worship the same particular God: YHWH the LORD God of Israel, as first revealed in the Tanakh/Old Testament. Obviously there are major differences between Jewish and Christian doctrine re. the doctrine of the Trinity, the divinity of Christ and the interpretation of the Tanakh/OT. Nevertheless, we worship the same God and we share a fraternal bond. This fact has made our ‘violence and wickedness’ against the Jews all the more perverse and shameful.

But I do basically agree with your last sentence: ‘Misguided Christian theologies have for far too long allied us with political powers using and abusing Christianity in the interests of conversion, conquest and subjugation.’ The only qualification I would want to make would be about the word ‘conversion.’ The Church is called to carry out the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19) and there is a conversionary aspect to this mission of evangelization. But you are right that the Church has made ‘conversion’ a dirty word because it has obscured the Gospel and dishonoured the Name of Jesus through ‘conquest and subjugation’ and our alliances with the powers of empire.

Yes, we should certainly pray for those other things. But I would argue that praying for reconciliation with the Jews is of particular importance and urgency for the Church because the Jews are our elder siblings in the faith and we have been grafted into YHWH’s family tree which has distinctively Jewish roots. We simply do not have this kind of bond with Islam or any other world religion. As for your reference to Indigenous people, I am proud that the Anglican Church of Canada is in the process of repenting of its ‘violence and wickedness’ against them. We have made praying for reconciliation with them a priority and the Church has written particular collects to that end. For that I thank God. And I think it is also time to include in our official standard of doctrine and worship a prayer ‘For Reconciliation with the Jews.’