Friday 24 September 2010

A God-sent Opportunity

I have formed this seperate blog in light of the fact that I shall be attending the Yad Vashem / Council of Christians and Jews Clergy Conference next week. I want to use this as a vehicle to share what I will be learning, offer questions out as they are raised in our discussions so that those of you who may feel so inclined to read this may engage a little in the same thought processes.

In simplest terms, this is a Seminar that will attend to the matter of the Nazi Holocaust during the Second World War. To use the course leader's own words:

The aim is to help equip Christian leaders, ordained and lay, to address issues which arise, whether theologically or pastorally, from the narrative of the Holocaust

It is a Seminar that will last two weeks and will be held in Jerusalem, with trips outside of the lecture theatres to museums and to other places of such exquisite spiritual importance (to me at least).

I will leave this brief introduction here. I have a place on this conference as a result of the astonishing kindness of David Gifford, CEO of CCJ and I am hugely endebted and thankful to him for what will, I am sure, prove to be a life changing and ministry changing moment.  I hope that some of you will journey with me through some arduous, shocking, challenging but necessary issues, and I pray that the lessons offered by such a dark event in our recent history will come to life in the days ahead.