Synod Home :: Synod, Committees and Forms :: Committees :: Christian Jewish Relations Working Goup :: Christian-Jewish Relations Working Goup

Christian-Jewish Relations Working Goup

In 1997, the Perth Assembly of the Uniting Church adopted a statement about the relations between Jews and Christians, and commended it to synods, parishes and non-parish bodies in the UCA.

Following the Assembly, the Victorian Synod appointed a Working Group on Christian-Jewish Relations.  It has largely an educational role. The chairperson is Rev Lorraine Parkinson, who was a member of the working group that prepared material for the 1997 Assembly.

Some of the sensitive issues of concern to the working group are:

• Supersessionism and the so-called 'teaching of contempt' for Jews and Judaism;
• Christian complicity in the growth of antisemitism;
• the significance of the Shoah ('Holocaust') for Jews and Christians;
• the proper interpretation of the Christian Scripture where there appear to be derogatory statements about Jews and/or Judaism.

For further information on this committee please visit the Working Group on Christian-Jewish Relations website.