Inter-Religious
Protestant Churches
A turning point in the relations between the Jewish people and the Protestant Church occurred in 1948, when the first General Assembly of the World council of Churches (WCC) in Amsterdam declared that "God has bound us in a special solidarity with the Jews, linking our destinies together in His design. We call upon all churches to denounce anti-Semitism as absolutely irreconcilable with the Christian faith. Anti-Semitism is a sin against God and man."
A similar unequivocal pronouncement was made in New Delhi in 1961 at an assembly of Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox Churches comprised of 300 church organizations. Formal consultation between the WJC and the WCC was initiated in 1968.
Nevertheless, difficulties have arisen at times in WJC's relations with the WCC, specifically when participation of some Middle Eastern and Third World churches left its mark on some of the WCC's policies and political actions.
But, in October of 1975 the WCC General Secretary issued a forceful statement repudiating the UN resolution of that year that equated Zionism with Racism.
Contacts with the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) resulted in a first international consultation between the International Jewish Committee for Inter-religious Consultations (IJCIC) and the Lutheran European Commission in 1979. Following that, in 1981 a permanent liaison committee was formed between the IJCIC and LWF at a conference in Copenhagen.
At the second official International Jewish-Lutheran consultation in July of 1983 was "Luther, Lutheranism and he Jews", marking he 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's birth. The meeting resulted in a significant re-appraisal on the Lutheran side of Luther's violent attitude towards the Jews. From that consultation the LWF released a statement saying, "that the sins of Luther's anti-Jewish remarks and the violence of his attacks on the Jews, must be acknowledged with distress".
Then in August of 1984 Dr. Gerhard Reigner addressed the World Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation in Budapest, the first Jew to do so.
The Anglican Communion
IJCIC and the Consultants to the Archbishop of Canterbury and York organized a first Anglican-Jewish consultation in November 1980. The meeting was held under the joint Chairmanship of the Archbishop of York and Chief Rabbi Sir Immanuel Jakobovits and a committee to plan future activities was established.
A high-level World Religionist Ethics Congress took place in Tokyo in June 1981 and among the 200 participants from many countries the WJC and IJCIC were represented.
Christians in Africa
In late 2001 Cameroon was the site of the first Christian-Jewish dialogue event held in French-speaking Africa. The consultation, co-sponsored by the World Council of Churches (WCC) and International Jewish Committee for Inter-religious Consultations (IJCIC), brought together Jews from Europe, Israel and the United States, as well as Christian representatives from 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
In addition to discussions from the three prepared themes, the Jewish and Christian participants took part in common Bible study sessions every morning and shared with each other their respective Sabbath rituals and services.
The participants issued a "Message of Consultation" in which they noted the ease with which, in the absence of difficulties created by the complicated history of European Christian-Jewish relations, they had been able to engage in dialogue "on a positive basis, free from suspicion and resentment."
