Israel-Hamas war in Gaza: Church of Ireland ignores Chief Rabbi’s concerns over 'extraordinarily offensive' sermon about Israel
The Church of Ireland has ignored concerns from the Chief Rabbi of Ireland that one of its leading clerics delivered "an inflammatory and extraordinarily offensive" public sermon about Israel to leading figures of the Irish establishment.
Chief Rabbi of Ireland Yoni Wieder raised concerns after a sermon by Canon David Oxley at St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin on Remembrance Sunday which was attended by Irish President Michael D Higgins, Minister Darragh O'Brien and representatives of the main Irish political parties.
The Church of Ireland (COI) published a report of the sermon online which was later removed.
The sermon report was almost entirely devoted to criticism of Israel's conduct in its war against Hamas - but made no mention of other ongoing civil wars in the Middle East which have claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.
The canon contended that in Israel's actions "we were seeing the horrible blasphemy of the master race in action".
He added: "This takes different forms in different times and places but it is still the same horrible ideas, that one group of people is intrinsically more valuable than any other Once that is accepted then the elimination of others follows as a matter of course - because they don't count”.
By this Rabbi Wieder understood he was comparing the 44,000 people reportedly killed by Israel from Gaza’s 2.1m population with the 6m Jews killed by the Nazis.
Canon Oxley acknowledged in passing the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2003, which he said "was deliberate cruelty for which no excuse would be made and which caused trauma and deliberate hurt to many innocent Israelis".
However the report did not acknowledge Hamas that actually killed anyone (1,200 died) nor the 250 hostages taken.
In a letter to Canon Oxley, Rabbi Wieder said the sermon was "not only crude, inaccurate and misleading, but also inflammatory and extraordinarily offensive".
He added: “Several members of my own community have taken your reference to the Master Race ideology in this context as intended to be deliberately hurtful and traumatising to Jewish people."
Rabbi Wieder told the News Letter yesterday: "This sermon came from an extremely ill-informed and biased position, culminating in a crude psychological analysis of Israel’s mindset.
"Beyond the inaccuracy of it, I can only hope that Oxley failed to grasp the depth of offense invoked by suggesting that Jewish people have adopted the same murderous outlook that was perpetuated against them by the Nazis.
"Canon Oxley’s analysis completely disregards the realities of a war fought against Jihadist terrorist organisations intent on Israel’s destruction.
"Frankly, I consider it an abrogation of moral and religious leadership that such a speech could be delivered by a representative of the Church of Ireland.
"It’s also troubling that the Church of Ireland has not distanced itself from the comments, despite calls to do so."
However, the COI ignored all the concerns raised by the rabbi.
A spokesman responded that St Patrick’s is "the National Cathedral of the Church of Ireland" and "a place of great openness, welcome and friendship, acceptance, and inclusivity".
He added: "In our worship, we are constantly praying for the peace of the world. Our prayers are with all who suffer in all the troubled areas of the world, and particularly in the countries of Our Lord’s earthly home.”