St George’s College – Sharing Perspectives

For the past 20 years I’ve visited Israel on family holidays and special occasions, at times meeting relatives and friends or just lying in the Eilat sun. But nothing prepared me for the remarkable 9-day journey hosted by St George’s College Jerusalem called ‘Sharing Perspectives: Jews, Christians, Muslims – Three Faiths in Conversation.’

Where is God in the Purim story?

It has always been puzzling that God is not mentioned once in the book of Esther – and yet it is still a fully-fledged Biblical book! Jewish tradition has a couple of different ways of resolving this issue.

Women’s Wisdom in the Hebrew Bible

“The wisdom of women builds her house.”

[Proverbs 14:1]

Reclaiming Women in the Early Church

Each of the epistles (letters in the New Testament) that is ascribed to an author, is ascribed to a man. The letters focus on the ministry of these men and so the view we can get of the early Church is that of a church dominated by men. However the end of Paul’s letter to the Romans tells a different story. Read more

A Christian sermon for Holocaust Memorial Day

Preached at Exeter Cathedral, Sunday 27th January 2019

Rob Thompson, Senior Programme Manager

Luke 4: 14-21

74 years ago Soviet troops liberated the concentration camps at Auschwitz.

Holocaust Memorial Day and local communities

Remarks given by Senior Programme Manager, Rob Thompson, at the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government’s Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration 2019

It is a privilege to be able to share with you some of my experience of the impact of Holocaust Memorial Day in communities around the UK.

Tu BiShvat: Waiting for Spring

Monday 21 January will be Tu BiShvat, the Jewish New Year for Trees. This day, a marker for calculating fruit tithes, could have been relegated to obscurity once most Jews were no longer involved in agriculture. But trees are a powerful symbol, and Tu BiShvat has been invested with new meanings over the years. Read more

In the Bleak Midwinter: Christmas in a time of challenge

One of my favourite Christmas carols is In the Bleak Midwinter. Read more

Bringing the light: A reflection on a ceremony to mark the contribution of Christians in the Middle East

I needed some time to gather my thoughts following a moving ceremony that I attended this week at Westminster Abbey to celebrate the contribution of Christians in the Middle East. Of course this was also a time for reflection on the immense loss endured by Christian communities in the region in recent years due to violence, loss of human life, destruction of homes and sacred places of worship. Read more

In memory of Edith Gold z’l

As a gap year student I spent a year on Kibbutz Lavi in the Galilee. The kibbutz was literally built by the hands of kinder, brought first to the UK on the Kindertransport and several years later to Israel, after spending time on a farm in Essex that prepared them for farming life on a Kibbutz. Lavi had a wonderful tradition of Kinder ‘adopting’ students and acting as surrogate ‘parents’. Read more