THE Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church approved a motion decrying the war in Gaza on Saturday, but only after a clause about disinvestment had been excised, and a latest sentence drafted swiftly on the ground of the Synod.
Canon Nicholas Taylor (Glasgow & Galloway) proposed the motion, saying that it concerned the “prophetic vocation” of the Church, and was intended to point that the Synod supported the Bishops and the Primus of their public statements on Gaza.
The motion called for a ceasefire, and a “just peace in Israel-Palestine”, and expressed solidarity with Christian communities within the region.
Canon James Currall (Moray, Ross & Caithness) seconded the motion, and made an impassioned speech over a recording of Karl Jenkins’s The Armed Man, a mass setting dedicated to peace.
The drum rolls which accompanied the beginning of his speech may need caused some to wonder if the PA was malfunctioning, but Canon Currall explained that he planned to talk only briefly, and to offer over many of the five-minute speech limit for members to reflect on the music.
He said: “On Thursday, in his charge, the Primus urged us to be prepared to stay our heads over the parapet [News, 13 June]. My name is on this motion because I feel that the killing of innocent men, women, and kids is improper and contrary to the teaching of our Lord and Saviour.”
An amendment to the motion was moved by the Revd Amanda Fairclough (Argyll & The Isles). “I need peace,” she said, “but, because the motion has been formulated, I cannot in all conscience vote yes to it.” She described two of the clauses as “admirably non-partisan”, but the ultimate clause “introduces partiality”, and she or he moved to remove it. The clause sought to be sure that the SEC’s investments would “under no circumstances profit from the exploitation, oppression, and dispossession of the Palestinian people”.
Robert McDonald (Argyll & The Isles) seconded the motion, saying that it was “too specific”, because the kind of exploitation it identified occurred elsewhere on the earth. If such guidance was to be given to the Ethical Investment Advisory Group (EIAG), it ought to be more general, he said.
The Bishop of Brechin, the Rt Revd Andrew Swift, who sits on the EIAG, said that he “appreciated the sentiment of the amendment”, but, none the less, was “comfortable” keeping it in. It was a public statement that this was something about which the Church was concerned, and any practical difficulties that EIAG may need in putting it in practice may very well be “coped with”.
David Stevenson (Edinburgh) spoke in favour of the amendment, suggesting that it was too subjective and open to interpretation. Some, for instance, would see the existence of the state of Israel as oppressive, while others would see Palestinian politicians as culpable for the present situation.
Hugh Morison (Moray, Ross & Caithness) said that “nothing which we are saying ought to be able to being interpreted as anti-Semitic,” but he was concerned that, because it stood, the motion may very well be interpreted in that way.
The Provost of St Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow, the Very Revd Kelvin Holdsworth (Glasgow & Galloway), also said that he couldn’t support the motion unless the clause was removed. Discussions could proceed within the EIAG no matter its inclusion, he said, and the Synod could back the motion with a much stronger voice if it were excised.
Canon Taylor, responding, said that there was “nothing anti-Semitic or Islamophobic” within the conception of the amendment. Ms Fairclough countered that “just by it being there, we invited people to suggest that we’re partial”. She urged people to vote against it in order that the Synod could endorse the remainder of the motion.
The Synod voted 65 to 19 to remove the clause, with eight recorded abstentions.
A second amendment was then moved by the Revd Denise Herbert (Brechin), which might have added a clause three: a tribute to “the Jewish individuals who lost lives within the October attack”, and a prayer for “those that have endeavoured to work alongside Palestinians for social justice and support”.
An objection was aired by Victoria Elliott (Edinburgh) that this amendment was too specific. Mr Morison noted that, when combined with the removal of clause 4, it meant that Jewish people were mentioned, but Palestinian people — each Christians and Muslims — weren’t.
The amendment fell, with 16 votes for and 80 against, with eight recorded abstentions.
In a debate on the motion as amended, without the unique final clause, the Revd Bonnie Evans-Hill (St Andrews, Dunkeld & Dunblane) said that her “gut” told her support the motion. “I need to vote for the motion, but I also need to specific some disappointment,” she said, concerning the lack of consultation with the interfaith relations committee, which she convenes.
The committee has been working on the Israel-Palestine conflict since before the present war, but had not received funding for a number of the work that they had intended to do. The motion was just words, she said, and, while she welcomed them, “we want to coach ourselves first concerning the history, our own culpability, and the way that culpability continues to this present day.”
Canon David Paton-Williams (Edinburgh) said that the motion didn’t go far enough, and that, if it was reported within the media, may appear “fairly anaemic” within the “context of 40,000 deaths”. He would vote for it, but feared that it was a “missed opportunity”. Ms Elliott agreed, and suggested that the Synod might want to aim a last-minute amendment.
After a show of hands indicated some enthusiasm for an extra amendment to be considered, a break was taken, during which various members gathered with the Primus and the Secretary General.
After about quarter-hour of dialogue, an amendment was tabled by Canon Paton-Williams and Ms Elliott, adding an expression of “profound grief and horror in any respect the violence and suffering experienced by people in Israel-Palestine over a few years”.
The amendment was accepted by the proposers of the unique motion, Canons Taylor and Currall, and so didn’t have to go to the vote.
The motion as amended did, and passed with 93 votes in favour, 4 against, and with two recorded abstentions. The Primus thanked members for the way during which that they had conducted the business.
The final motion read:
That this Synod
1. welcome and affirm the recent Statement of the College of Bishops calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and a just peace in Israel-Palestine, and the nomination of Friends of the Holy Land as recipient of the Synod Offering;
2. call upon the College of Bishops to proceed to talk boldly within the name of this Church on matters of justice and human rights;
3. express its solidarity with the Diocese of Jerusalem and the Middle East, and other Christian communities in Palestine-Israel; and its profound grief and horror in any respect the violence and suffering experienced by people in Israel-Palestine over a few years.”
