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Editorial
The Editors

Sin-Repentance-Reconciliation. These three realities are intimately related and are permanent and universal factors of human life both for individuals and for societies. The cycle Sin-Repentance-Reconciliation is not confined to the specifically religious area and there is no truly human life without it. A striking example of this process was the Reconciliation Programme set up by a London Rabbi and a German Lutheran Pastor after the Second World War. Young Germans were received into Jewish families in London and a number of events was organised to help each to understand the other. These Germans acknowledged the evil perpetrated by the Nazis in their country, accepted a share of responsibility and sincerely repented. Heroic action was needed from the Jews whose kin had been the victims of the evil, to receive "the enemy" into their homes. Also German municipalities and groups have invited Jews to return at least as guests of honour to their former home towns. The healing of German-Jewish relations in the post-war world owes much to such initiatives. They could be said to foreshadow the truth of the saying that true repentance immediately brings forth the Messiah.
This issue of Sidic explores the meaning of Teshuvah for Jews and Christians. A major concern is the aspect of both communal and institutional repentance. As the dialogue between the Church and the Jewish People has developed, it has become evident that the Church has considerable difficulty in acknowledging that it has sinned as an institution vis-a-vis the Jewish people. Though Pope John Paul II has clearly admitted and regretted the part of Catholics in the Holocaust and in other evils, like slavery, yet a clear admission of the failures of the Church as an Institution is still lacking. Perhaps this is partly due to an ecclesiology which emphasizes the holiness of the Church but not its need for repentance. It is also true that the confession of sin, which has a prominent place in the Church's liturgy, focuses on the sins of individuals and rarely on the community which makes up the Church.
Rabbi Mark Solomon shows the meaning and primacy of Teshuvah in Judaism, traces its development in the tradition and its place in contemporary Jewish life. Rev. Hend Bourgeois explores the distinctive aspects of Christian repentance in a thoughtful article and raises the question of the Church's repentance for the sins of the institution. An edited extract of the MA thesis of Sr. Lucy Thorson describes the communal aspect of the Jewish and Christian liturgies of repentance. She suggests that the emphasis on the community in Jewish Liturgy could inspire the Church to recover this dimension in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Three short reflections by Cardinal Martini, the late Bruno Hussar OP and Rabbi Jonathan Magonet enrich this study of Teshuvah. The article by Rabbi David Rosen is courageous, informative and thought- provoking. It is fitting in this issue of SIDIC for it confronts us with the pressures of contemporary political life in the Middle East and the challenge of God's call "to be holy".