Anglican Communion News Service

The Anglican Church's national office hosted an historic meeting of Canadian religious leaders with the Hon. Allan Rock, Minister of Justice, to discuss the issue of Nazi war criminals in Canada.

The meeting was organized by the Canadian Jewish Congress. Rabbi Reuven Bulka, chair of the Congress' Interreligious Affairs committee, said "This is the first time since the end of World War II that many of Canada's major religious leaders will be meeting with the minister of justice to discuss the moral imperative of bringing Nazi war criminals in Canada to justice."

The delegation included leaders from the Anglican, Evangelical Lutheran, Roman Catholic and United Churches, and the World Sikh Organisation, stressing that the war crimes issue is of concern to all faith groups.

The Anglican Church was represented by the Revd Eric Beresford, consultant on ethics and interfaith relations. The Primate, Archbishop Michael Peers, issued the following statement:

quot;In the light of the holocaust, Christians of all denominations have been involved in a reexamination of our relationship to Judaism and the Jewish people. For Canadian Anglicans, this is expressed concretely in our participation in the Canadian Christian Jewish Consultation. In that context we seek to assure members of the Jewish Community that we, 'will persist in fighting anti-Semitism wherever it exists'.

For some years Anglicans, along with other Christians, have sought to express liturgically their penitence for those failures of the Christian community which have contributed to anti-Semitism, and for the fact that elements of the Christian community actively supported the holocaust. We have sought to express our common commitment to ensuring that the holocaust will never happen again."

In previous statements, with reference to the genocide in Rwanda, and war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, we have expressed our horror at war crimes and genocide and have called upon, "the government and international community to ensure that those responsible for organizing and/or implementing genocide, and for gross violations of human rights be justly tried and, where guilty, be punished.

In the light of this background we wish to add our voice in solidarity with that of the Jewish community to request that every effort be made to pursue proceedings against war criminals in Canada in a manner that is both just and expeditious.

Article from: Anglican News Service, Canada