The formation of an ecumenical agency to foster Jewish-Christian dialogue in the United States has been urged by the board of directors of the United Church Board for World Ministries, overseas missions arm of the two-million-member United Church of Christ. The agency would serve as an American counterpart to the World Council of Churches’ Committee on the Church and the Jewish People, which has for some years been sponsoring talks between Jewish and Christian leaders. It would coordinate but not duplicate existing activities, and would include conservative evangelicals, Unitarians and Roman Catholics as well as mainline Protestant denominations, the Board said.
In asking the directors to recommend formation of the agency, Rev. Dr. David M. Stowe, executive vice-president of the United Church Board, said that this is a time of “heightened uncertainty and even tension” between Christians and Jews in the U.S. “The news media have carried a flock of resentful or suspicious Jewish reactions to Key 73’s announced intention to ‘confront every person in North America with the gospel.’ Such phenomena as ‘Jews for Jesus’ confirm Jewish fears that they are to be made the targets of a proselytizing campaign,” Dr. Stowe said.
These concerns about renewed Christian interest in evangelism are “added to deep and lingering hurts springing from the widespread refusal of Christians to rally to the Israeli cause at the time of the Six-Day War in 1967,” he said. Current Jewish questioning of Christian evangelism “raises crucial questions for the whole style and intent of our work around the world,” Dr. Stowe declared.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
