LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Presbyterian Church (USA), under fire from Jewish groups for its funding of messianic Jewish congregations and a move to divest from Israel, is appealing to both faiths to respect whatever “fragility of trust” still exists between them.
In a three-page statement issued July 20, Clifton Kirkpatrick, the stated clerk, defended recent church votes that one prominent Jewish group called “hostile and aggressive.”
“I encourage Presbyterians to maintain their relationships with people of other faiths, with sensitivity to the fragility of trust in the present climate of violence and terror,” Kirkpatrick said.
Church headquarters in Louisville, Ky., has received hundreds of angry phone calls and e-mails from Jews who protested votes on Jewish evangelism and the Israeli-Jewish conflict during the church’s recent General Assembly in Richmond, Va. Delegates voted 260–233 to maintain funding for churches, including one in suburban Philadelphia, that serve Jewish converts to Christianity. That congregation, Avodat Yisrael, received $260,000 from various church agencies and has been called “offensive” by Jews for its use of Jewish ritual music and sacred objects such as Torah scrolls and menorahs in Christian worship. Delegates also voted 431–62 to study whether the church should divest from companies doing business in Israel. The last time the church altered its portfolio in protest of a foreign country was in the 1980s against South Africa.
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