Earlier this month the Archbishop of Canterbury traveled with the Chief Rabbi to two of most notorious concentration camps of World War II. Both the Archbishop and the Chief Rabbi’s reflections on that trip have been published on the Archbishop’s website. Both call for a renewed recognition of the fundamental humanity of those with whom we disagree.
From the Archbishops speech:
“In a world where it’s possible for people to take monstrosity for granted as normal, as ordinary; you and I have to decide to be human – to decide that we’re not going to take inhumanity for granted. To decide to look at one another in a radically different way, to look at one another with gratitude, with a sense of mystery, with a sense of humility.”
And from the Chief Rabbi:
Please friends I hope you will take away from today what I take away – an extraordinary signal of hope. This is the first time in Britain certainly that we have come together not one faith, but the leaders of all nine faiths in Britain; Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Zoroastrian and Bahá’í. Because the tragedy of Auschwitz transcends this people or that. It simply touches on what is human in all of us. Therefore may the fact that we have come together in this moment of grief remembered lead us to come together in the future for the sake of hope, friendship, tolerance and life. And may each of us ask just one question from today: “How, having seen what I have seen can I become in my life, an agent of hope”.
Read them both in full here.