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A world-wide dialogue - The International Council of Christians and Jews
William W. Simpson

In August 1966 an international conference of Christians and Jews was held in Cambridge. Organized by the International Consultative Committee of Organizations for Christian-Jewish Cooperation, later to become known as the International Council of Christians and Jews, it marked the 20th anniversary of the first ever international conference of Christians and Jews held in Oxford in 1946. Among the members of the Dutch delegation was Professor Cornelis A. Rijk whose name, ostensibly for purely alphabetical reasons, immediately followed that of Monsignor Dr. C.A. Ramselaar, though it is tempting to attribute the presence of the 'Professor' to the perceptive insight of the 'Monsignor' who had for some years been associated with the International Consultative Committee.

First Associations with the ICCJ

It was, in any case, the beginning of a very happy and fruitful association between Cornelis, as in response to his characteristic friendliness we soon learned to call him, and the ICCJ. Already at Cambridge he made adeep impression upon those who were associated with him in the Commission which discussed the implications of recent statements on the Church and the Jewish People by the World Council of Churches at New Delhi in 1961 and the Vatican Council in 1965. Indeed, the criticisms of certain aspects of 'Nostra Aetate' which were set out in the report of that Commission were, I remember, largely formulated by Cornelis Rijk.

From that time onwards he played an increasingly important role in meetings of the Council's Executive Committee which he attended as an Observer, and in further international conferences in Jerusalem (1976), Southampton (1977) and Vienna in 1978. Characteristic of his always positive and forward looking approach to situations is the following extract from the Minutes of an Executive meeting held in December 1967, the first after the Six-Day War. There it is recorded that after a review by Professor Zwi Werblowsky of Jerusalem of the current Middle East situation

"Dr. Rijk pleaded that Christians and Jews alike should regard the 'disappointment' at the silence of the Christian Churches as a valid starting point for future rapprochement."

A Humble Challenger

It is, however, in his letters rather than in the inadequacy of Minutes that one really begins to meet the man himself and to feel again the humbling challenge of the depth of his insights, the breadth of his knowledge and the heartfelt nature of his concerns.

That he was no mere `organization man' his friends know well. Indeed, one of his great anxieties about the ICCJ as it began to develop from the small, informal and largely consultative body that it had earlier been was, as he wrote in a letter dated May 31st 1978, lest it should become "an over-efficient and over-pragmatic organization." But neither was Cornelis ever merely critical. "I will continue", he went on immediately, "to collaborate with the ICCJ in a certain way and we will see exactly how". Unhappily the illness which was so soon to overtake him and which in the end took him from us, deprived us of the chance of seeing how he would have fitted into the developing pattern of the organization. Certain things, however, were predictable. As Chairman of the ICCJ Theological Sub-Committee, he had already agreed with Professors Ze'ev Falk of Jerusalem and Clemens Thoma of Luzern that the group would undertake a study of the concepts of Power and Peace in Judaism and Christianity.

Moreover, we may be sure that he would have continued to press the need for new approaches to the Biblical traditions of both Synagogue and Church if some of the more tragic aspects of wrong emphases were to be overcome and a more positive dialogue developed. This, indeed, was the theme of a paper he read to the Southampton Confrence in 1977.

He was also deeply concerned about certain implications of proposals current in both Catholic and Protestant circles to fix the date of Easter: implications seemingly unrecognized, or at least thought to be of secondary importance, by Christians and, more understandably, by Jews. Here, as he wrote in a letter dated January 17, 1978, there are

"extremely clear indications and dangerous signs of the Church separating itself more and more from the Jewish tradition, that is from the roots, from the cosmic, historical and human reality. The danger is that Christianity becomes more and more a system, a doctrine, an ideology, with less and less contact with life and history and reality".

The full answer to the question of how he would have continued to collaborate with the ICCJ we shall, alas, never know. But it is safe to assume that he would strongly have approved of the decision of the ICCJ Executive at its recent meeting in the Martin Buber House at Heppenheim to appoint as its new General Secretary, Coos Schoneveld, the present Director of the Ecumenical Theological Fraternity in Jerusalem. Coos Schoneveld was closely associated with Cornelis as a member of the ICCJ Theological Sub-Committee and was very much a man after his own heart.

A Warm Tribute

Appropriately enough, the final act of that same meeting of the Executive Committee was to pay warm tribute to the memory of Cornelis Rijk and to express

"gratitude for his splendid contribution to the development of the dialogue between Christians and Jews, first, through the office of the Vatican Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, then as Director of SIDIC and throughout the whole period as an Observer on the Executive Committee of the International Council. His world-wide experience, his deep insight into the multifarious problems of interfaith relations, his gracious personality and his unfailing sense of humour will be sadly missed by all who remember him as friend and colleague".

But the last word shall be with Cornelis himself. On February 7th, 1979, in a letter to the present writer he wrote:

"I will not tell you now about my experiences of the last three or four months. That we will do once, somewhere, with a good glass of wine. But I will never appreciate friends more than I learned to do in this time. With God's help they gave me really new life. In a way it was a miracle!"

Then, after describing the progress he was making towards recovery (including "a course to improve my Hebrew"!) he continued:

"I am not sure when I can return to Rome, but I don't hurry. Jews and (probably) Christians will continue to exist. And the SIDIC team is quite active. They will develop the work further. I go as reasonably as possible. It is a strange `sabbatical year'."

Strange indeed, but one which under God leaves us with an example of courage, joy and abiding faith which we do well to heed and with the help of the same God to emulate.