Yesterday in the Church’s calendar we marked the Presentation of Christ in the Temple (also known as Candlemas), 40 days after Christmas (Luke 2:22-40).
As Simeon takes the young baby Jesus in his arms, we hear Christ proclaimed as the light of the world — light, hope and peace for all peoples and nations without discrimination.
It was particularly poignant for me this year as I had just returned from Jerusalem. Once again I had been on a solidarity visit, this time with the Bishops of Chelmsford and Norwich, to be alongside our Christian brothers and sisters in Israel and Palestine, and to bear witness to the reality of their daily lived experience in the West Bank.
On Saturday 24 January we were in Ramallah with Fr Fadi, and then last Friday Fr Fadi and friends from St Andrew’s Ramallah arrived in the UK, hosted by the worshipping community of St Philip and St James, Leckhampton, with whom there has been a strong link over many years. On Sunday it was a privilege to be at St Philip and St James alongside Fr Fadi, celebrating Candlemas.
Following the Gospel reading (Luke 2: 22-40), Fr Fadi and I reflected together on the situation in Palestine in the light of those verses. We mused on the challenges Joseph and Mary may have faced, travelling from Galilee to Jerusalem in a country under occupation, and we spoke about the present reality of restricted movement for those living in the West Bank, and the hundreds of checkpoints and gates that stifle and delay movement each day, and the way that discrimination is a daily reality. We spoke about the truth of Christ being the light for all peoples, yet the reality that in the Holy Land our Palestinian brothers and sisters, living under abhorrent occupation, do not know the equal dignity and justice which Christ came to establish:
UK Government ‘complicit’ in Israeli occupation of West Bank, Bishop of Gloucester says
During our episcopal visit to Israel and Palestine it was once again good to spend time with Joel and colleagues from Breaking the Silence — veteran soldiers who have served in the Israeli military and who now speak out against the injustices, provocation of fear and the diminishing experienced by Palestinians under Israeli occupation. These courageous Jews are passionate about Israel and fervent in their Jewish faith, whilst also advocating for justice and the end of occupation. And at this point, let me be quick to reiterate that there is no place for antisemitic attitudes and behaviour in our local communities, on our university campuses, or across our land. This too is hatred and perpetuates humanity’s failure to live the truth of every person being precious and created in the image of God. As I have repeatedly said, the danger of the language of being ‘pro’ a particular people immediately implies that you are ‘anti’ another. It was thus poignant for us as bishops to go to the Anglican Cathedral in Jerusalem on the day when the UK marked Holocaust Memorial Day (27 Jan), to light candles and to remember the Jewish children and adults horrifically murdered in the evil of the holocaust alongside so many people seen as ‘other’, and to pray for a world in which genocide is eradicated and all people are valued – a world in which we strive for equal dignity for all.
One of our more joyful days in the West Bank was joining with the organisation ‘Rabbis for Human Rights’ to plant olive trees on Palestinian land, constantly under threat due to the illegal and violent invasion of settlers. In the beautiful Al Makhrour valley, it was wonderful to be together on the land – Jews and Christians, equal human beings, living our prayer for peace and equity for all people as we literally got our hands dirty.
It seems appropriate that one week after Candlemas comes the Sunday designated as Racial Justice Sunday (8 February 2026). Whilst it is important that we don’t only think about these things on one day a year, this Sunday does offer a specific time to pause and to be intentional in our looking, hearing and responding — to ask how our prayer is lived out in action, regarding racial injustice and hatred, across our world and in our different local contexts. I am struck afresh by the words of Richard Reddie, who in writing of the call for Christians to engage in the righteous struggle for racial justice, states that “racial justice is everyone’s business”.
I am glad that a Racial Justice Advisory Group is taking shape in this diocese as part of the West Midlands Racial Justice Initiative and we look forward to sharing more in the coming months.
In Luke chapter 2 amid the joy of the moment, we hear Simeon’s chilling words to Mary about a sword piercing her soul (verse 35). So it is that at Candlemas we say goodbye to Christmas, and we begin to turn our eyes towards the cross as Lent appears on the horizon.
In my visit to the West Bank I was struck once more by the truth that the very presence of the Palestinian Christians (now less than 1% of the population) is not only a nonviolent active resistance in itself, but is also a daily and costly choice to take up their cross and follow Christ. Thus, on Sunday, in the context of Simeon’s words, I reflected with Fr Fadi on the voices we heard in Palestine, speaking of daily walking the ‘via dolorosa’ (the path of Christ’s suffering and crucifixion) — carrying the weight of the cross along the steps of their path, yet holding fast to the hope of the empty tomb. Such hope is so different from optimism, which quite frankly is absent in Palestine.
As always, I ended my visit to the Holy Land by spending time in Jerusalem at the site of Golgotha and the Holy Sepulchre — praying that I might be ever more faithful to the truth of Christ’s death and resurrection. In the days before Candlemas, it was poignant to light candles in both places and to give thanks for Christ, the Light of the World, and the truth that the darkness will never overcome the light.
A Prayer for Racial Justice Sunday:
Merciful God,
you are righteous and love justice:
stir the hearts of your people that, rejoicing in our diversity, we may repent of the wrongs of the past, and, by your grace, seek the peaceable kingdom of your Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen
With my thanks and prayers as ever,
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