Anti-jewish Statement by Canadian Priest Repudiated by Diocese Official

An official of the Diocese of the Anglican Primate of Canada has repudiated the viciously anti-Jewish statement by an Anglican priest which appeared last month in a local Anglican publication, it was disclosed today.

The article by the Rev. H. R. Rokeby-Thomas, which appeared in the Huron Church News, questioned the loyalty to their countries of all Jews outside of Israel, denounced Israel for its “injustice” toward Adolf Eichmann, excused Nazi Germany for its anti-Semitism and declared there could never be peace between Christianity and Judaism. The Huron Church News is the official publication of the Church in London. Ontario. The Rt. Rev. George Luxton, Anglican Bishop of the Diocese and editor-in-chief of the Huron publication, said it was not his duty “to condemn or denounce” the article.

The repudiation came from Canon E.W. Scott, executive director of the Anglican Social Service of the Diocese of Rupert’s Land. The diocese is the seat of the Anglican Primate of Canada, the Most Rev. H.H. Clark who is the senior Anglican ecclesiastic of Canada.

SAYS CHURCH HOLDS DIFFERENT VIEW; REGRETS PUBLICATION OF STATEMENT

Canon Scott repudiated the article in a statement to the Jewish Post of Winnipeg in which he said that “the official view of the church is quite different from that set forth by Mr. Rokeby-Thomas.” Canon Scott added that “many Anglicans locally and nationally, while believing in the right and importance of free speech, disagree fundamentally with the views expressed by Rev. Rokeby-Thomas and regret that they ever appeared in print in a Church publication.”

The Canon also cited a statement of the Canadian Council of the World Alliance for International Friendship Through the Churches. The Canon said that the statement had been endorsed and publicized by the Council for Social Service of the Anglican Church and that he felt the statement “could well apply to the article in question.”

The statement he cited quoted the Canadian Council as viewing “with great sorrow the spread of anti-Semitic propaganda in Canada by various agencies at the present time. Such agitation tends to break the fundamental unity of Canadian life and therefore the status to which all elements of our population are legally entitled. We call upon the leaders of our Christian churches to urge their people to ignore such propaganda and so far as it bears the imprimatur of ‘Christian’ organizations, to repudiate it as utterly un-Christian.”

Ganon Scott declared that Rev. Rokeby-Thomas “was not speaking” in his article “for the Diocese of Huron and certainly was not speaking for the Diocese of Rupert’s Land nor for the Anglican Church of Canada.”