By Bishop Sophie Relf-Christopher
The Holy Church of God reveres images of Mary, mother of our Lord, cradling the Christ child. The earthly Jesus was once a tiny, brown-skinned refugee in the arms of his veiled mother, escaping the threat of murder. These icons can be found across the Christian world and throughout Eastern and Western traditions.
This week, images from Gaza of veiled women holding emaciated infants have been everywhere. They are icons of unspeakable horror.
Anglicans the world over are disgusted by the unlawful killing of innocents. The Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, has expressed his revulsion this week because every day “…the violence, starvation and dehumanisation being inflicted on the civilian population by the Government of Israel becomes more depraved and unconscionable”.
To claim this violence is Jewish is plainly antisemitic. This cruelty is Israeli policy, not Jewish policy. We must take care to articulate the difference as we call for an end to atrocities.
The deliberate starvation of a civilian population is always evil. Shooting innocents as they try to collect food and water is always evil. There is simply no other way to describe the wickedness that is allowing this situation to continue.
Doctors are too weak from hunger to operate on the wounded. Hospitals are without supplies. The civilian population is hopeless in the face of complicity and inaction from developed nations.
Please join in praying for Gaza and raising the cause of the innocent and unwilling participants in these modern icons of horror.
Bishop Sophie Relf-Christopher is an assistant bishop in the Anglican Diocese of Adelaide
