The Archbishop of York, The Most Reverend Stephen Cottrell, has disclosed he felt "intimidated" by Israeli militias during a visit to the Holy Land this year.
He recounted being 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 think of no other way of putting it – we have become fearful of each other, and especially fearful of strangers, or just people who aren’t quite like us.
“We don’t seem to be able to see ourselves in them, and therefore we spurn our common humanity.”
He described how YMCA charity representatives in Bethlehem, who work with “persecuted Palestinian communities” in the West Bank, gave him an olive wood nativity scene carving.
The piece showed a “large grey wall” blocking the three kings from getting to the stable to see Mary, Joseph and Jesus.
The Church of England archbishop added: “It was sobering for me to see this wall for real on my visit to the Holy Land, and we were stopped at various checkpoints and intimidated by Israeli militias who told us that we couldn’t 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’m also thinking of all the walls and barriers we erect across the whole of the world and, perhaps most alarming, the ones we build around ourselves, the ones we construct in our hearts and minds, and of how our fearful shielding of ourselves from strangers – the strangers we encounter in the homeless on our streets, refugees seeking asylum, young people starved of opportunity and growing up without hope for the future – means that we are in danger of failing to welcome Christ when he comes.”
