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From the Editor ‘The real kicker for Jonah is that they believe his message’ Iwas brought up with Bible stories, so I knew the story of Jonah from childhood. A child’s version of the story, anyway. In it, God sends Jonah to Nineveh to preach to unbelievers, but Jonah doesn’t fancy it. He runs away from God on a ship, going as far as he can in the opposite direction. There’s a terrific storm and Jonah ends up in the sea, in a whale. When he gets back on solid ground, God sends him to Nineveh again. The Ninevites believe his message and turn to God, happy endings all round. The lesson is: evangelism may be daunting, but don’t be as silly about it as Jonah was. Looking at it again – as Jonah comes up in the lectionary readings for 10 November – I realise that this version of the story I remember from childhood misses quite a bit. Nineveh was not just abroad, and not just heathen, but the capital of the Assyrian empire which dominated and then invaded Israel, taking 27,290 people into slavery. Other biblical prophets, such as Nahum, call down absolute horrors on Nineveh. ‘I will lift up your skirts over your face; and I will let nations look on your nakedness,’ says the wrathful Lord. Nahum prophesies from the safety of Israel. Jonah has to risk his life prophesying Nineveh’s destruction in Nineveh. But the real kicker for Jonah is that the Ninevites believe his message and change their ways, avoiding judgment and averting catastrophe. Jonah tells God, ‘This is exactly why I ran away. I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, ready to relent from punishing. Now please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.’ Nahum would have sympathised. I suppose this meltdown is connected to Jonah’s attempt to escape God by catching a ship to the other end of the earth. The sailors are pagans, so they ask him which Israelite god he is running away from. Jonah answers soundly with Hebrew liturgy: he is the God of all heaven, all the earth, and all the sea. This is the main point of being an Israelite prophet, isn’t it? Knowing and teaching folk that there is one God of all people, and every place, one father of all creation. When Jonah tries to escape God’s demands on a ship, does he really believe what he teaches? And when the Ninevites change their ways and turn from the path that would have destroyed them, Jonah discovers how hard it is to really believe that God is the loving parent of every person. And of fellow creatures whose welfare we disregard. It is not always easy to believe that God looks with tender, even jealous, care on those we see as villains, as vicious, violent, vile. What a reading for remembrance Sunday. Father, have mercy on my enemy. Father of my enemy, have mercy on me. Stephen Tomkins, Editor Reform magazine 86 Tavistock Place London, WC1H 9RT 020 7916 2020 reform@urc.org.uk www.reform-magazine.co.uk Editor Stephen Tomkins Graphic Designer Chris Andrews Content Editor Laurence Wareing Book Reviews Editor Ian Fosten Art in Focus Curator Meryl Doney Local Digest Editor Laurence Wareing Head of Communications Andy Jackson ADVERTISING Jo Asher: jo@jam-associates.co.uk 01858 681358 SUBSCRIPTIONS Church House 86 Tavistock Place London WC1H 9RT 020 7520 2721 reformsubs@urc.org.uk www.reformsubs.co.uk Reform is published by the United Reformed Church: 020 7916 2020 www.urc.org.uk November 2024 / Reform / 4 Reform welcomes unsolicited articles though publication is not guaranteed. Nothing in these pages may be reprinted, in whole or in part, without permission. Opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the official policy of the United Reformed Church. Acceptance of advertisements does not constitute an endorsement either by Reform or by the United Reformed Church. ISSN 03067262 Printed using vegetablebased inks, by Bishops Printers, Walton Road, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO6 1TR
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News ll-Stiftung inrich-Bö : ©He Photograph Attacks on UK Jews and Muslims reach record level News in Brief The number of attacks motivated by antisemitism and by anti-Muslim racism in the UK soared in the year after the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. There were 5,583 antisemitic incidents recorded between 7 October 2023 and 30 September 2024, according to the Community Security Trust, which monitors antisemitism in the UK. This, the trust says, is the highest number in any 12-month period since it started recording incidents in 1984. It is three times the number that was recorded during the previous year. Over the same period, 4,971 anti-Muslim attacks were recorded in the UK by Tell Mama, which monitors Islamophobia. This is the highest number it has recorded in its ten years of operation. The Home Office released its figures for hate crime on 10 October, covering the year to March 2024. While hate crime in general went down by five percent, religious hate crime increased by 25%, from 8,370 to 10,484. The increase, said the Home Office report, ‘was driven by a rise in offences against Jewish people and, to a lesser extent, Muslims’. It recorded 3,282 religious hate crimes targeting Jews, compared to 1,543 the previous year. Dave Rich, director of policy at the Community Security Trust, told the Religion Media Centre: ‘Every time Israel has a war, we see big rises in antisemitism in the UK and this time is not different in that respect. But where it was different is that the increase has been much bigger, more sustained and has spilt over into many different areas of society, where we didn’t really see it previously.’ He cited schools and hospitals as places newly affected by antisemitism. ‘I think the Jewish community is feeling quite bruised by the past year,’ he said, ‘quite shaken by a sense of wondering whether and how much this country has actually changed for Jewish people.’ Iman Atta, the director of Tell Mama UK (pictured), told The Guardian: ‘The anti-migrant, anti-Muslim narratives, mixed with grooming suggestions and with Muslim communities being called ‘Hamas’ and ‘terrorist’, tells us that international incidents are colouring the view of some fellow citizens against Muslim communities in the UK. Anti-Muslim hate is a cancer.’ The Archbishop of Canterbury joined with the Chief Rabbi and the Chair of the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board in a joint statement on 6 October, lamenting the suffering in the war and declaring: ‘Anti-Jewish hate and anti-Muslim hate have no place in the UK today. We must stand together against prejudice and hatred in all its forms.’ URC hosts CWM women The United Reformed Church hosted ‘A New Face’ in September and October, a programme of the Council for World Mission. Fifteen female ministers from partner Churches around the world met in Lumen URC in London. ‘A New Face’ is an immersive programme designed to give participants a cross-cultural experience of mission. The ministers explored the subjects of women in the scriptures and in leadership. Participants came from New Zealand, Kiribati, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Singapore, England, Wales, Korea, Jamaica and Australia. Lindsey Brown, the URC’s Evangelism and Ecumenical Officer, said: ‘It was a privilege to host the women in London before they set off to visit other partner Churches and projects around the country. We prayed that they had an inspiring and fruitful adventure.’ Operation Noah plans 20th anniversary service Operation Noah, the Christian charity which aims to inspire Church action on the climate disaster, celebrates 20 years with a service at St John’s, Waterloo, on 18 November. The preacher is Dr Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury. Operation Noah asks churches to mark the occasion by planting a tree. Churches are vital to UK’s health, says report UK Churches save the NHS £8.4bn through services such as food banks, help with addiction, mental health counselling and youth groups, according to a report by the National Churches Trust. ‘The House of Good Health’, published on 15 October, said that churches promote mental and physical health, prevent conditions that would otherwise require treatment, and provide locations for medical interventions. Columbus was secretly Jewish, says scientist Christopher Columbus may have been a Spanish Jew, rather than Genovese, as thought, according to DNA researchers. The findings of a 20-year investigation were published on Spanish TV marking the anniversary of the explorer’s arrival in the Americas on 12 October. The conclusion of the geneticist involved with the programme was that Columbus concealed his Jewish identity. His patrons, Ferdinand and Isabella, expelled the Jews from Spain in 1492, the year Columbus discovered the New World. November 2024 / Reform / 5

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From the Editor

‘The real kicker for Jonah is that they believe his message’

Iwas brought up with Bible stories, so I knew the story of Jonah from childhood. A child’s version of the story, anyway. In it, God sends Jonah to Nineveh to preach to unbelievers, but Jonah doesn’t fancy it. He runs away from God on a ship, going as far as he can in the opposite direction. There’s a terrific storm and Jonah ends up in the sea, in a whale. When he gets back on solid ground, God sends him to Nineveh again. The Ninevites believe his message and turn to God, happy endings all round. The lesson is: evangelism may be daunting, but don’t be as silly about it as Jonah was.

Looking at it again – as Jonah comes up in the lectionary readings for 10 November – I realise that this version of the story I remember from childhood misses quite a bit. Nineveh was not just abroad, and not just heathen, but the capital of the Assyrian empire which dominated and then invaded Israel, taking 27,290 people into slavery.

Other biblical prophets, such as Nahum, call down absolute horrors on Nineveh. ‘I will lift up your skirts over your face; and I will let nations look on your nakedness,’ says the wrathful Lord. Nahum prophesies from the safety of Israel. Jonah has to risk his life prophesying Nineveh’s destruction in Nineveh.

But the real kicker for Jonah is that the Ninevites believe his message and change their ways, avoiding judgment and averting catastrophe. Jonah tells God, ‘This is exactly why I ran away. I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, ready to relent from punishing. Now please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.’ Nahum would have sympathised.

I suppose this meltdown is connected to Jonah’s attempt to escape God by catching a ship to the other end of the earth. The sailors are pagans, so they ask him which Israelite god he is running away from. Jonah answers soundly with Hebrew liturgy: he is the God of all heaven, all the earth, and all the sea.

This is the main point of being an Israelite prophet, isn’t it? Knowing and teaching folk that there is one God of all people, and every place, one father of all creation. When Jonah tries to escape God’s demands on a ship, does he really believe what he teaches?

And when the Ninevites change their ways and turn from the path that would have destroyed them, Jonah discovers how hard it is to really believe that God is the loving parent of every person. And of fellow creatures whose welfare we disregard. It is not always easy to believe that God looks with tender, even jealous, care on those we see as villains, as vicious, violent, vile. What a reading for remembrance Sunday.

Father, have mercy on my enemy. Father of my enemy, have mercy on me.

Stephen Tomkins, Editor

Reform magazine 86 Tavistock Place London, WC1H 9RT 020 7916 2020 reform@urc.org.uk www.reform-magazine.co.uk

Editor Stephen Tomkins Graphic Designer Chris Andrews Content Editor Laurence Wareing Book Reviews Editor Ian Fosten Art in Focus Curator Meryl Doney Local Digest Editor Laurence Wareing Head of Communications Andy Jackson

ADVERTISING Jo Asher: jo@jam-associates.co.uk 01858 681358

SUBSCRIPTIONS Church House 86 Tavistock Place London WC1H 9RT 020 7520 2721 reformsubs@urc.org.uk www.reformsubs.co.uk

Reform is published by the United Reformed Church: 020 7916 2020 www.urc.org.uk

November 2024 / Reform / 4

Reform welcomes unsolicited articles though publication is not guaranteed. Nothing in these pages may be reprinted, in whole or in part, without permission. Opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the official policy of the United Reformed Church. Acceptance of advertisements does not constitute an endorsement either by Reform or by the United Reformed Church. ISSN 03067262

Printed using vegetablebased inks, by Bishops Printers, Walton Road, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO6 1TR

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