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Joint Statement

United Church of Canada and B'nai B'rith District No. 22
Canadá (1973)

The following is the text of the statement issued jointly by the United Church of Canada and B'nai B'rith District No. 22 resolving the differences that arose out of the article in the United Church Observer last year.

As representatives of the United Church Family and the B'nai B'rith in Canada, we have anguished over recent events that have driven deep wedges of misunderstanding and acrimony between us.

As we in the Church recall the record of the centuries, we acknowledge the Church's sorry role in fostering hostility between the Christian and Jewish communities. We seek to ameliorate our relationship and pursue the future unfettered by intolerance, prejudice or rancour, with common goals directed towards the betterment of the society in which we live.

We of the United Church deeply regret and disavow the insensitivity and inaccuracies contained in an article by John Nicholls Booth in the United Church Observer (March 1972). We of the B'nai B'rith deeply regretand repudiate invective as a form of expression and communication.

We recognize and appreciate the interests of Jews everywhere, and of the United Church, for the events in the Middle East and in the survival of Israel.

Though we may differ in opinion from time to time on some issues, we believe that cooperation and friendship can be achieved, and that criticism of each other can be constructive when offered in a spirit of mutual respect and integrity.

As growing problems and challenges face us here in Canada, and throughout the world, members of the United Church and of B'nai B'rith need to meet one another, share insights, discover differences and cooperate, where possible, in social action for the common good; but communication cannot take place in an atmosphere of ambiguity or doubt regarding the respect of one party for the other.

We jointly look forward to dialogue as the appropriate means whereby points of view can be expressed, reconciliation achieved and understanding established. We affirm that our combined energies shall be increasingly channelled in this direction.