‘Refreshing and uplifting’: Winnipeg Jews, Christians meet to promote dialogue

Jews and Christians from various denominations, including some from the Indigenous and Filipino communities, met Monday in Winnipeg in an effort to promote an open dialogue between the two religions.

The meeting’s goal was to discuss how Christians and Jews can take their theologies more seriously in order to establish better relations.

Jewish historian Norman Tobias and Orthodox Christian priest Geoffrey Ready, who helped found the Christian Jewish Dialogue of Canada in 2024, spoke at the gathering. They are holding cross-country meetings to create a national movement to promote dialogue between Christians and Jews.

Ready, who is director of Orthodox Christian Studies at the University of Toronto, praised the work already being done in Winnipeg, saying he hoped it would translate to the rest of Canada to “combat the Christian theological roots of antisemitism.”

He said many Christians don’t fully appreciate the historic links between Judaism and Christianity — that Jesus was Jewish, as were the apostles, and that much of Christian beliefs and rituals, such as communion, baptism and sabbath, are rooted in Judaism.

“That seems largely unknown to many Christians,” he said, adding “Jesus stood at the heart of Jewish tradition.”

While there are other groups working on understanding between Christians and Jews from social, cultural and political points of view, the goal of the Christian Jewish Dialogue of Canada is to work at it from a theological perspective, Ready said.

This includes spending time studying the shared scriptural heritage of Jews and Christians, and dealing with theological challenges such as the doctrine of supersessionism, also known as replacement theology. That doctrine teaches that Christianity has superseded the Jewish faith and that the church is the true Israel and the inheritor of God’s promises to that nation. That idea is rejected by Jews.

Also problematic, Ready said, is Christian Zionism — the idea that the state of Israel’s main role is to play a bit part in prophecies concerning the future of the Christian faith.

Tobias, author of the book The Jewish Conscience of the Church: Jules Isaac and the Second Vatican Council, highlighted the role individuals can play in promoting good relations between religions.

He shared the story of how French Jewish historian Jules Isaac, who had written about the Jewishness of Jesus and the dangers of anti-Jewish interpretations of the New Testament, persuaded Pope John XXIII to include Christian-Jewish relations at Vatican II.

The result of that secret meeting between the pope and Isaac was the 1965 declaration titled Nostra Aetate, which affirmed Christianity’s roots in Judaism. It also stated that Jews should not be seen as having been rejected by God, condemned antisemitism and declared that the death of Jesus could not be charged against all Jews, then or now.

“And it was all because of a last-minute meeting between the pope and a Jewish historian,” Tobias said.

In response to the presentations, the 50 or so people gathered for the meeting expressed appreciation for the event. Comments were made about how Christians could be allies to Jews, especially after the Oct. 7 attacks; about how gatherings like that one could also be used to tackle not only antisemitism, but also Islamophobia and hate of all kinds; and how Winnipeg could be a leader in Canada in interfaith relations.

Belle Jarniewski, executive director of the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada and co-founder of the Manitoba Christian Jewish Dialogue, called the meeting “refreshing and uplifting” and showed that people were interested in going beyond just getting together to “get into the nitty-gritty” of their beliefs.

The next event for Jews and Christians will be Oct. 22, when members are invited to mark the 60th anniversary of Vatican II.

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