by the Rt Revd Sarah Bullock* 

This year, the beginning of Holy Week overlaps with the Jewish festival of Pesach, or Passover. This presents Christians with a positive opportunity to reflect on how we are presenting Jews and Judaism in our worship as we approach Easter.

The Christian-Jewish relationship is something to be celebrated and cherished. The Church of England document, ‘God’s Unfailing Word’ describes this relationship as a gift to the Church which helps us to be attentive to God’s plans for us and the world.  

Engaging in Christian-Jewish dialogue is a profound way to celebrate our similarities and to honestly navigate our differences. The convergence of Holy Week and Pesach offers a wonderful opportunity for Christians and Jews to learn about one another and our distinct traditions. In our Holy Week services, therefore, we can speak about Jews and Judaism in a way which celebrates this gift.

However, Holy Week has unfortunately been a period in the Church’s calendar which has promulgated anti-Judaism and antisemitism. For Christians, therefore, this is also a time for self-reflection and reassessment, as we take care to avoid perpetuating harm towards Jews in our Holy Week worship. This is especially important considering the exponential rise in antisemitism in the UK.

Anti-Judaism and antisemitism can appear in our prayers, liturgy, preaching and passion plays when we further interpretations of Scripture which place the blame for Christ’s death solely with the Jewish people, or when antisemitic tropes appear in our rhetoric.

More subtly, perhaps, we can present Jews and Judaism during Holy Week in a way which promotes supersessionism (the notion that Christianity has replaced Judaism). In its hardest forms, supersessionism presents Judaism as inferior to Christianity, and void of any contemporary spiritual value. This denies the gift of mutual encounter and the joy of dialogue between Christians and Jews today.

As well as supersessionism and anti-Judaism, it is important to avoid appropriation of Jewish customs and practices during Holy Week. The most common form of appropriation is ‘Christian Seders’. Christians often approach Christian Seders with the best of intentions, primarily with a desire to learn about Jewish connections to the Last Supper. Yet the Seder which is practised in Jewish communities today is a later Rabbinic development and is not what Jesus would have done. Furthermore, taking a contemporary Jewish custom (the Seder night tradition) and translating it into a Christian context appropriates contemporary Jewish practice. This is not dissimilar to a different faith group performing their own version of the Eucharist. A much better way to learn about Jewish traditions is to engage in dialogue with the Jewish community themselves.

The convergence of Pesach and Holy Week in our calendars is a cause for celebration and yet it is also an important moment for Christians to pause and reflect on how we are presenting Jews and Judaism in our worship and teaching. After 2,000 years, we still have a lot of work to do to make sure we are not perpetuating harmful stereotypes, but that we are celebrating the gracious gift of the Christian-Jewish relationship.

* The Rt Revd Sarah Bullock is Chair of the Council of Christians and Jews.