Chandlers Ford Methodist Church

Minister's Letter - December 2012
Rev Peter Cornick
A cartoon recently appeared in The Times showing two missiles heading in opposite directions, both towards built up areas; one missile was Palestinian, the other Israeli. On both missiles was the caption ‘Because all we want is peace’. Humour is hardly the way to describe the horror of Gaza, or the settlements in Israel under attack. But the irony of the cartoon is, whether Palestinian or Israeli, ordinary women and children simply want to get to school in the morning, come home safe and not go to bed in a shelter. Because all they want is peace. Missiles, from whichever side, cannot achieve peace. Looking for the Methodist Church’s response to the conflict on its website, I found a summary of a book edited by Professor Eyal Naveh, of Tel Aviv University. Written by both Palestinian and Israeli teachers, the book is called Side by Side: Parallel Histories of Israel-Palestine. The summary said: ‘The book accepts that there are two narratives in Israel-Palestine, and that each story has to be respected if there is to be peace’. On the same website, there were pointers towards these two narratives; the stories which need to be respected. I read of Methodists who had visited Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. Here were Christians of my tradition, trying to comprehend the incomprehensible slaughter of so many Jewish people in the forties. And engaging with that story, they would have to come to terms with another story, the long and painful history of those who carried out anti-Semitism, including the Christian church. And then I read a different story, of Palestinian Christians feeling their land had been taken away from them. They and other Palestinians felt forgotten and abandoned by the wider world – particularly the Christian world which is supposed to stand by the oppressed – isn’t it? And so I heard a story of our collective failure to notice parts of the suffering ‘Christian body’. Two narratives to hear. Two stories to be respected. Because all we want is peace. And that’s my Christmas message. Sorry, no shepherds or angels! But some wise men and women who have stepped back from flinging missiles, to tell their stories and listen to the narratives of others, because all we want is peace. This is incarnation – which literally means, ‘taking on flesh’. Or, put another way, appearing in the flesh in someone’s presence. And really hearing them; really respecting them. The Christmas message is of incarnation: God appearing in the flesh, born as Jesus. God, in our presence, hearing the pain of our narratives and respecting the depth of our stories; not by missiles but as a baby; because all we want is peace.

Minister's Letter - December 2012

Rev Peter Cornick

A cartoon recently appeared in The Times showing two missiles heading in opposite directions, both towards built up areas; one missile was Palestinian, the other Israeli. On both missiles was the caption ‘Because all we want is peace’. Humour is hardly the way to describe the horror of Gaza, or the settlements in Israel under attack. But the irony of the cartoon is, whether Palestinian or Israeli, ordinary women and children simply want to get to school in the morning, come home safe and not go to bed in a shelter. Because all they want is peace. Missiles, from whichever side, cannot achieve peace.

Looking for the Methodist Church’s response to the conflict on its website, I found a summary of a book edited by Professor Eyal Naveh, of Tel Aviv University. Written by both Palestinian and Israeli teachers, the book is called Side by Side: Parallel Histories of Israel-Palestine. The summary said: ‘The book accepts that there are two narratives in Israel-Palestine, and that each story has to be respected if there is to be peace’.

On the same website, there were pointers towards these two narratives; the stories which need to be respected. I read of Methodists who had visited Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. Here were Christians of my tradition, trying to comprehend the incomprehensible slaughter of so many Jewish people in the forties. And engaging with that story, they would have to come to terms with another story, the long and painful history of those who carried out anti-Semitism, including the Christian church. And then I read a different story, of Palestinian Christians feeling their land had been taken away from them. They and other Palestinians felt forgotten and abandoned by the wider world – particularly the Christian world which is supposed to stand by the oppressed – isn’t it? And so I heard a story of our collective failure to notice parts of the suffering ‘Christian body’.

Two narratives to hear. Two stories to be respected. Because all we want is peace.

And that’s my Christmas message. Sorry, no shepherds or angels! But some wise men and women who have stepped back from flinging missiles, to tell their stories and listen to the narratives of others, because all we want is peace. This is incarnation – which literally means, ‘taking on flesh’. Or, put another way, appearing in the flesh in someone’s presence. And really hearing them; really respecting them. The Christmas message is of incarnation: God appearing in the flesh, born as Jesus. God, in our presence, hearing the pain of our narratives and respecting the depth of our stories; not by missiles but as a baby; because all we want is peace.