A vote in the Church of England General Synod to "hear" a pro-Palestinian document was "deeply unwise" and will only add to growing antisemitism in Britain, the Bishop of Blackburn has warned.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Bishop Philip North said that at a time when Jews in his local area of Lancashire are "terrified" and having “existential fears for their future in this nation”, Synod's vote to "hear" the Kairos II document will only "add to a growing tide of anti-Semitism in our country".
The bishop described "an enormous, very complex, overlapping set of Muslim communities" in his area, all united around Gaza and "a really visceral, intense antipathy towards the state of Israel".
While Palestinian Muslims and Christians will be "celebrating" Synod's recommendation to engage with Kairos II, for Jews it will have the opposite effect.
“We’ve been forced to take a binary position, and whatever binary position we take, one side celebrates and the other feels bitterly betrayed,” he told the newspaper.
“The big mistake was to reference particularly the Kairos II document, which is, a number of speakers said, antisemitic according to a definition of antisemitism [we have] adopted. It’s certainly perceived to be anti-Semitic by the Jewish community. It’s an inflammatory document."
In the days leading up to the debate, Christian and Jewish leaders spoke strongly against Kairos II and urged Synod not to pass a motion to "receive" the document.
In the end, the motion was amended to "hear" the document. In legal terms, receiving Kairos II would have meant accepting it. Hearing the document recognises engagement without complete agreement.
However, Bishop North warned that the distinction would be lost in the real world beyond Synod.
“This is, locally, on the streets, an unbelievably visceral, complex, nuanced argument, which is incredibly intense, including in Lancashire,” he said.
“That nice distinction around words in a synod chamber means absolutely nothing in the Middle East or on the streets of urban towns where this is particularly an issue.”
He feels that passing the motion will make the Church of England's interfaith engagement "significantly harder".
Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis expressed dismay after the vote, calling the Church's decision to engage with Kairos II "shameful".
"This is a document full of falsehood, which openly rejects dialogue, uses extreme rhetoric to challenge the very existence of Israel and objects to existing peace agreements in the region," he said.
"Though it poses as a route to understanding, Kairos II in fact functions as an egregious barrier to it, reducing one of the world's most complex conflicts to a single, warped narrative, which can only harm the cause of peace."
Kairos II has come under particular criticism for likening Israel to a colonial, apartheid state and its actions in Gaza to "genocide".
Writing in the Jewish Chronicle after the vote, Anglican commentator Giles Fraser said the debate and vote were a "disgrace" and that Synod members should "hang their heads in shame".
The Board of Deputies of British Jews had warned beforehand that passing the motion would "have immediate harmful consequences for British Jews and do potentially lasting harm to Jewish-Christian relations".
"The Kairos documents, especially Kairos II, spread a toxic narrative about Jews," it said.
"They do so at a time when antisemitic rhetoric, incitement and violence have surged in Britain following the horrors of 7 October, and in the context of the devastating multi-front war that followed with Iran and its proxies."
A coalition of Christians has since launched a "Declaration Against Kairos II", which it said contained "inaccurate, one-sided, and dangerous rhetoric".
"Upon reading and consideration, we simply cannot receive Kairos II or endorse any hearing of it in a Christian context, and we explicitly reject it and denounce the same," the coalition said.
"God commands 'You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour' (Exodus 20.16). It is our conviction that Kairos II is not in the interests of Palestinian Christians and only serves to hinder the cause of peace, failing to acknowledge or recognise the root causes of pain in Gaza and the region of Judea and Samaria, commonly referred to as the West Bank.
"Its language is acerbic and even seems to rationalise and justify the heinous atrocities of Palestinian terror factions on October 7 2023 which have had devastating consequences.
"The document falsely and without substantiation accuses Israel of genocide in relation to its war on Hamas and terror factions in Gaza to rescue hostages and destroy Hamas' capabilities."
Signatories include London pastor Regan King, Anglican theologian Ian Paul, Rev Hayley Ace, spokesperson for Christian Action Against Antisemitism, and Dr Juergen Buehler, President of International Christian Embassy Jerusalem.
