Full Text: Anglican Bishop’s farewell message to Ambassador of Israel

Last Thursday we held a farewell reception for H.E. Ambassador of Israel, Yitzhak Gerberg and his wife Shifra.

Many of our members were unable to attend, so here is the full text of the Anglican Bishop of Christchurch Peter Carrell’s speech.

BEGINS

Your Excellency, Ambassador Gerberg and Shifra, your wife , the rangatira of Ngai Tahuriri, Mr Grant Close of the Christchurch Hebrew Congregation, and NZ Friends of Israel, greetings!

I am glad to be here tonight. As Anglican Bishop of Christchurch I believe I should be available to be with the NZ Friends of Israel just as I am available to meet with those outside the building who are demonstrating tonight. To be Anglican is to be inclusive.

Many years ago, in 1983, I made my first and so far only visit to Israel. It took place while I lived in Egypt for a year. It was a very memorable visit. This year, 2020, Teresa and I had hoped to visit Jerusalem for what would have been Teresa’s first visit and my second visit. Unfortunately Covid-19 put paid to that. Perhaps we will make it in 2022.

One of my memories of the 1983 visit is that one moment I could look up and see a farmer making his way down the road driving a tractor – just as if I was back in Canterbury – and the next moment I could look up on a hillside and see shepherds as though I was back in the days of the Bible.

I visited Israel out of my interest as a Christian and because of my study of the Bible.

Israel’s story is a shared Jewish and Christian story. Together we share sacred scriptures, the writings which are known as The Tanakh. We have a shared commitment to the well-being of Jerusalem as the holy city of God and a shared commitment to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. And we share a commitment to peace between nations and to justice between communities.

Nevertheless there are and have been testing moments in the shared history between Christians and Jews as well as tragedy and trauma through the Holocaust. A Christian commitment to Israel is a commitment to never again have such trauma and tragedy visited against the Jewish people.

Your Excellency, I wish you and your wife well as you leave these shores. As you know, there are two Promised Lands in the world, and New Zealand is one of them. You leave one Promised Land to go to the other. You are always welcome back.

ENDS