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The Archbishop of York, The Most Reverend Stephen Cottrell, has revealed he felt “terrified” by Israeli militia during a visit to the Holy Land this year.
He reported that he was stopped at checkpoints and told by these groups that he was unable to visit Palestinian families in the occupied West Bank.
During his Christmas Day sermon at York Minster, he said: “We have become – and really, I can’t think of any other way to say it – we have become fearful of each other, and especially of strangers, or people who are not exactly like us.
“We seem not to be able to see ourselves in them, and so we despise our common humanity.”
He described how charity representatives from the YMCA in Bethlehem, which work with “oppressed Palestinian communities” in the West Bank, gave him a carving of the nativity scene on olive wood.
The fragment depicted a “great gray wall” blocking the three kings from getting to the stable to see Mary, Joseph, and Jesus.
The Archbishop of the Church of England said: “It was sobering for me to literally see this wall during my visit to the Holy Land, and we were stopped at various checkpoints and intimidated by Israeli militia, who told us we could not visit Palestinian families in the occupied West Bank.
“But this Christmas morning here in York, as well as thinking about the walls that divide and separate the Holy Land, I am also thinking about all the walls and barriers we erect all over the world and, perhaps most dangerously, the ones we build around us, the ones we create in our hearts and minds, and how we fearfully protect ourselves from strangers – the same strangers we encounter on our streets like homeless people, seeking refuge. Refugees, young people deprived of opportunity and growing up without hope for the future – this means we are in danger of failing to welcome Christ when he comes.”