In October 2009 Lucy Winkett wrote in the Comment is Free section of the Guardian “To say that the church should not dirty its hands with the appalling dilemmas, confusions, and impossible decisions that emerge in war is to misunderstand completely its role in society or its character as an institution.” At that time she was working in St Pauls Cathedral in London as its Canon Precentor. She is no stranger to renown, in March of this year she was chosen by Mary Ann Sieghart to be featured in the Radio 4 Profile programme, and at that time was described as being seen by many inside the Church as favourite to become the first female bishop of the Church of England. Shortly after writing her piece for the Guardian Lucy left the prestigious post at St Pauls to take on the role of Rector of St James’s Piccadilly. This Christmas, after nearly a year of planning and 8 days work, the church revealed an Art Installation “an eight-meter-high replica of the Israeli-built concrete wall that entirely surrounds the Palestinian city of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, the traditional birthplace of Jesus.” The wall was revealed on 23rd December and has been trending on facebook as a result of this website report. However for the piece to be seen in the context of its curators and the Church itself, visit this website, and also read the press release. These websites go on to explain “It is an effort to bring to London some of the reality of what it is like to live in Bethlehem in 2013. The wall deliberately obscures the facade of the historic St. James’ Church “because that is what has happened to Bethlehem’s holy sites and historic places.”

Clearly this construction is not intended to be factually accurate, and indeed the real item is 90% fence and only 10% concrete barrier (although the full length of the barrier is some 430miles, so the concrete wall section is over 40 miles long). It is known as a separation fence by the Israeli’s and this device is little different in many senses from the ‘peace’ wall in Belfast or the wall that once separated East and West Germany in Berlin. However the wall has been very controversial, as indeed would any similar construction in any Western Democracy today. The wall outside St James Church is intended to reflect one aspect of the current experience in Israel, just as the many crib scenes outside parish churches across the country are intended to depict an aspect of the Israel of 2000 years ago, and the lights outside many homes across the world, the modern Christmas. Each is intended to tell a story and inevitably all are either very welcome or inappropriate depending on ones point of view. The Wall in Piccadilly has inevitably attracted many critics as well as plaudits. Late last night Melanie Phillips of the Daily Mail decided to raise her concerns via twitter. She has repeated her tweet this morning, presumably wanting to time her comments for the beginning of the Christian day of celebration.

@MelanieLatest St James’s Church vicious stunt incites hatred against Israel, spreads further stain of revived Jew-hatred in CofE. The tweet then provides a link to Melanie Phillips blog

I have read the blog and some of its criticisms and concerns are perfectly reasonable and wholly accurate, but sadly a great deal of what she has written are simply untrue and based on the same sort of prejudice which she is accusing St James Piccadilly of. I have been a professional worker within the Churches in Sussex for twelve years, and have been an active Christian for around 40 years. In that time I have come across many within all churches including the Church of England whose support and confidence in the Jewish community, including their civic leadership is best compared to the most active of the peaceful Unionists within Northern Ireland, people who hold the institutions of the state concerned in naïve and un-blinkered reverence. I have also come across many whose contact with Palestinian and Israeli Christians leads them to have enormous concerns about the political leadership of the State of Israel, views that they appear to share with many British Jews. Most Christians appear to hold views between these two points included those involved in interfaith and two/three faith activities. Sadly many are as uninformed about what takes place in Israel as the average reader of the Daily Mail. However I have rarely heard any expressions that I could describe as being in any way anti-Semitic. There is certainly no evidence of any form of institutionalised anti-Semitism based on my experience.

As the website for St James makes clear “This wall is symbolic of walls all over the world that divide and confine peoples, restricting free movement and dominating the imagination of those who live behind them.  We believe that bridges not walls are the only lasting foundation for peace.”  It appears that the wall shows a church that has in a very small way, got its hands dirty with some of the planets appalling dilemmas, confusions, and impossible decisions. If Melanie Phillips genuinely believes that this is an attack on Jewish people, I am confident that she is mistaken and can see no evidence of it, but I also know that Lucy Winkett is big enough to apologise for any appearance of attack, However I suspect that Melanie Phillips will not apologise for anything she has said or done, whatever the evidence she might be shown! The challenge for all of us is what we can do to recognise fault on both sides of the wall and fence in Israel, as well as the one in the West End of London, recognising that many of the current tensions in Israel do originate in the actions of our own nation in the 1940’s.