Open Letter to General Council of the United Church of Canada

This summer, Commissioners to the General Council of the United Church of Canada face critical decisions—decisions not only about denominational policy but about the integrity of our interfaith commitments. At stake is whether we will endorse seven radical and one-sided proposals, riddled with propaganda and falsehoods, or whether we will reclaim the sacred ground of honest, respectful engagement with the Jewish community in Canada, even as we voice deep humanitarian concern for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

The United Church of Canada has long prided itself on its commitment to justice, human rights, and theological diversity. Yet we fear the Church is drifting into ideological unison on the question of Israel—a univocal anti-Zionism that betrays our core values. While we respect our colleagues in ministry, we cannot remain silent as certain voices claim to speak for us all. They do not.

We must reject proposals that describe Israel as a "genocidal settler-colonial project" and accuse it of "ethnic cleansing," while minimizing the October 7 pogrom by calling it a "raid" and casting it as "resistance." We must speak out when these proposals even presume to dictate to Jews in Canada the definition of antisemitism we will accept. Since October 7, our denomination’s public statements have ranged from morally ambiguous to outright accusatory toward Israel, often downplaying the brutal reality of terrorism. Such responses reveal a refusal to enter this complex and painful conversation with humility, clarity, and a willingness to listen to diverse voices.

We believe that the Jewish state has a right to exist in peace and security. The UCC affirmed this principle in 2003 as denomination policy in Bearing Faithful Witness. However, our commitment to that ideal is in shambles. We have alienated and angered Jews in Canada. We have created a chasm between our denomination and mainstream Jewish organizations. Our decisions this summer threaten to turn this chasm into a permanent schism. 

While we may have complex and competing views about the State of Israel and its policies, we are of one mind and heart in this: Jesus’ Jewishness is of ongoing saving significance. There is no Christianity without Jesus’ Jewish mother, his first disciples, the writers of his New Testament, his friend and imitator Paul. One of Christianity’s earliest heresies was Marcion’s attempt to lop off the Jewish trunk of the tree into which gentile Christians are grafted by faith and baptism. Centuries of Christian anti-Judaism contributed to the catastrophe of the Shoah, after which we began to turn from our hatred of Jesus’ house and family toward something more like love. 

However we speak of contemporary geopolitics, we cannot revert to our worst days of reflexive Jew-hatred. Our Jewish friends and neighbours in Canada are in trouble. The post-war generation grew up without fear of living an outwardly Jewish life, but their children and grandchildren worry whether it is safe to go to shul or school or anywhere else. We Christians have been guilty of doing nothing for our Jewish friends in the past, or even of adding to their distress and persecution. 

Antisemitism is on the rise worldwide and in Canada. Its best cure, for us Christians, is a love for God’s calling of Abraham, God’s gift of the Torah to Moses, God’s leadership through David and Solomon, God’s promised blessing of the nations through the prophets. Jesus teaches us to see him not just in bread and wine, the neighbour, the enemy, and the prisoner, but in his fellow children of Abraham and Moses. Let us be caught not only speaking well of our fellow descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but standing alongside all who are oppressed, in the name of the Jew, Jesus.

Rev. Dr. Jason Byassee
Rev. Dr. Connie denBok
Rev. Lorraine Diaz
Rev. Foster Freed
Rev. Andrew Love
Rev. James Ravenscroft
Rev. Phil Spencer

(If you are clergy with the United Church of Canada and you wish to endorse this letter, please email theologic@pm.me)