The only surprise about the racist behaviour of the Methodist Church in Norwich is that anyone is surprised. It is a Church that has, in recent years, foregone any pretence of self respect.
The Church is wholly owned by the Board of Deputies of British Jews in tandem with its extension, the Council of ( alleged ) Christians and Jews. To understand how this control was achieved it is necessary to understand the role of the CCJ.
The BoD is nothing other than an extension of the Israeli Embassy, as its erstwhile treasurer, Lawrence Brass, ruefully acknowledged, and the CCJ functions as its attack dog in its dealings with the Churches.It is an unholy alliance of Jewish ultra Zionist Zealots and Christian Zionist rabids. Among the local branches you will find plenty of people of goodwill and integrity that genuinely work at maintaining good relations between Christians and Jews in the localities. This is not an onerous task. Relations are unproblematical in any event.
At the top, however, it is rotten to the core and has been for a good while.
Jane Clements, who became CCJ director in 2014, has made a valiant effort to clean it up, with a little success, but not a lot. She has had to admit defeat , however, and is moving on. She has been replaced by Elizabeth Harris – Sawczenko. Elizabeth, came to the CCJ effectively on secondment from the Board of Deputies.
So the CCJ is back firmly in the control of its dominant Trustee, Michael ” something of the night ” Howard and his nut job messianic son, Nick
CCJ’S Programme manager is Rob Thompson. Along with his dad, Bruce, Rob was largely responsible for stitching up the 2013 annual Methodist conference in the service of the Board of Deputies and the 2014 resolution imposing a ban on any mention of Israel at conference.
The CCJ Branch Liason officer is Joy Barrow, another Methodist ultra Christian Zionist.
Given this state of affairs, the denial of the presence of Jackie Walker on the premises of an allegedly Christian Church, was entirely predictable.
In its web site gloat the BoD thanks ” everyone involved for their help and cooperation “. They mean the CCJ and what we might call, ” Methodist Central.”
Jackie Walker never had a snowball in hell’s chance of speaking in a Methodist Church.
The hounding and persecution of Jackie Walker, which is far more virulent than in the cases of others they have identified as ” miscreants “, has clear and unmistakeable racist undercurrents. The BoD, CST , JLC, et al distinguish between good Jews and bad Jews. Jackie Walker is very much the wrong kind of Jew, on at least two major counts. She is non Zionist and she is black.
That the Methodist Church would stoop to indulging and participating in this kind of racism, is, as I have said, no surprise to me. It is nonetheless very, very sad.
Now many people are going to be saying that my claim that the BoD/CCJ own the Methodist Church is a hyperbolic, antisemitic conspiracy theory. Not that I care. I just consider the source.
The detailed account of how this owning came to be can be seen here……
And here…….
https://hurryupharriet.wordpress.com/how-the-2013-methodist-conference-was-ambushed/
The process was completed at the 2014 conference . Here the Methodist leadership, now completely in the pocket of Jonathan Arkush, managed to get a resolution passed that put a three year moratorium on any resolution being presented that mentioned Israel. One veteran commented that he had been coming to conference for many years and this was the first time he had known conference forbid itself from discussing a particular subject.
You can be certain this moratorium will be extended in 2017.
The Board made great use of the facts that Jackie has been suspended by the Labour Party and removed as vice chair of the Momentum steering committee. To a hopelessly uninformed Norwich Pastor all this must have seemed very damning, and as a free pass for them to exclude her too. So those that facilitated those moves bear a big responsibility. I am not talking about McNicol, Angell and such. They are beyond the pale.
I have in mind those on the ” left ” that facilitated these moves and those, like the narcissistic young fogey an, ego leftist and video star, Owen Jones, that remained silent in the face of them. Jones, Lansman, the AWL faux socialists on the Momentum steering committee, Christine Shawcroft, and others, would do well to sit down and have a good think about what they have done.
That twin pillar of the Jewish gutter press, the Jewish Chronicle, thinks all of this is a great wheeze.The little Pollard clone, Marcus Dysch, congratulated the Methodists for ” heaving” Jackie out of their church. Obviously Marcus has no concept of what a church is ( or is meant to be) and what a church is for. I don’t know enough about Jewish practice and religious organisation to know if heaving people out is what happens at synagogues. But a Church of Jesus Christ is meant to be universally inclusive and is meant to be dragging people in, not heaving them out.
The JC then gleefully headlined that the ” Methodists had closed their Church door on Jackie Walker”.
This kind of sickening ungodly behaviour from the JC is par for the particular course and is no tragedy. The tragedy is that the Methodists themselves share the attitude.
The heading on the Chapel Field Road Methodist Church website……
“ Everyone is welcome here”.
If only.
Tir Tairngire 
I can understand that a Jew would always support Israel, no matter what, as it seeks to re-brand itself as the ‘Jewish state’.
What I can’t understand is why Christians, who should attempt to follow the actions of Jesus, would support Israel given its unGodlike? actions over the past decades.
I suppose there are Christians and Christians, Muslims and Muslims and I would hope Jews and Jews.
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Well put, Michael.
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