Sir, — On 9 February, the present Bishop of Chichester, Dr Martin Warner, spoke about his wartime predecessor Bishop George Bell and his controversial House of Lords speech 79 years earlier, on 9 February 1944: “Bell asserted that the rule of law was emblazoned on the banner beneath which the forces of the Crown were engaged in 1944. The symbol of the sceptre entrusted to the Sovereign in the Coronation is the acknowledgement of a higher authority and law, to which all are accountable.”
This accountability includes every country and its government — not just our own.
RICHARD W. SYMONDS The Bell Society 2 Lychgate Cottages Ifield Street, Ifield Village Crawley, West Sussex RH11 0NN
International law and Israel’s response to Hamas
From Dr Jonathan Chaplin
Sir, — Two correspondents last week trenchantly exposed the weakness of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s responses to the Israeli government’s retaliatory assault on Gaza (Letters, 3 November). Since they wrote, the House of Bishops has now put its collective name to an equally inadequate statement, issued on 31 October (News, 3 November).
Rightly, the statement begins by emphatically “condemning” Hamas’s horrendous terrorist attack on Israel. Rightly, it “condemns” the surge in anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in the UK. But all that it can say about Israel’s counter-attack is that we must “reflect on” it.
The Bishops’ reflection suffers from three grave deficiencies. First, the “huge number of civilians killed in three weeks of bombardment” — by the time this letter appears the number will have exceeded 10,000, including 4000 children — is not a “humanitarian catastrophe”. It is a war crime.
International humanitarian law emphatically excludes the kind of disproportionate and indiscriminate bombardment of civilian populations, including hospitals and schools, that the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) are daily engaging in, not to speak of its cutting off of essential supplies to civilians and its attempt to force the removal of half of Gaza’s population to the south while continuing to bombard that area indiscriminately as well. Five hundred and eighty-seven senior British lawyers have asserted as much in a letter to the UK Government on 26 October. Why can’t our Bishops?
Hamas’s barbaric policy of using civilians as human shields is, of course, a war crime. But, as the lawyers’ letter makes clear, “the commission by one party to a conflict — including an armed group — of serious violations of international humanitarian law does not . . . justify their commission by another party.” Compelling evidence of the IDF’s war crimes is now vastly more abundant than that of Hamas’s. The IDF are bound by law to find other ways to take out Hamas’s military and political structures, even as they rightly seek to recover Israeli hostages.
The Bishops’ failure to charge Israel explicitly with breaking international humanitarian law in specific, indictable ways is a chronic failure of truthful moral description. This omission is even more egregious since the IDF’s acts clearly violate fundamental just-war principles to which the Church of England is itself officially committed.
Second, as the UN Secretary General said on 24 October, the assault on Gaza “did not happen in a vacuum”: “The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.” The Bishops’ statement says not a single word about this, divorcing these events from the longstanding and complex context from which they emerged and which is essential for their larger moral assessment.
Third, the Bishops affirm “absolutely” Israel’s right to defend itself, but are wholly silent on the Palestinians’ right of resistance against illegal occupation, also affirmed in international law (which is not remotely to imply that Hamas’s attack was any part of such legitimate resistance). Do they affirm that principle of international law as well, or not?
I take no pleasure in saying that these failings will be long remembered by Palestinians, especially by Palestinian Christians, many of whom are Anglicans. It is, perhaps, not yet too late to correct them.
JONATHAN CHAPLIN 19 Coles Lane, Oakington Cambridge CB24 3AF
From Sue Claydon and Jan Benvie
Sir, — The recent statement from the House of Bishops was titled “An Appeal for Peace”. While it rightly condemns the actions of Hamas, it only “reflects” on the actions of the Israeli government, which have already led to the deaths of more than 10,000 civilians, 4000 of whom are children. Although it calls “for immediate humanitarian pauses . . . holding out hope for a ceasefire in the longer term”, the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship believes that it is now time to call for a ceasefire. Several Anglican Archbishops have done so in the Christian Aid statement of 26 October, which said, “Only a full ceasefire will deliver aid safely and effectively.”
We do welcome the House of Bishops’ calling “for the Israeli Government to protect the population of the Occupied Territories and arrest anyone threatening them, without fear or favour”, as this aspect of the current situation seems to be ignored by the general media.
APF believes that the only way to break the cycle of violence and build a lasting peace is to end the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the blockade of Gaza, and create conditions of justice, equality, and peace for all Israelis and Palestinians.
If any aspect of the recent conflict is beyond dispute, it is surely that settling current issues by military force leads to the suffering and death of innocent civilians and children — on both sides.
SUE CLAYDON, Chair, Anglican Pacifist Fellowship JAN BENVIE, Secretary, Anglican Pacifist Fellowship 112 Whittlesey Road March PE15 0AH
From the Revd Dr Peter Liddell
Sir, — Peter Shambrook’s Policy of Deceit and Bishop Pritchard’s review (Books, 6 October) should be required Advent reading.
For some, the beginning of the present conflict was the horrific slaughter by Hamas on 7 October; for others, it was the preceding decades of oppression. Shambrook confronts Britain’s shameful betrayal of promised sovereignty to Arabs.
But it is before recorded time that we must look for the beginning. “Creation myths breed violence,” wrote Tikna Frymer-Kensky (Bible Review, June 1998). The “full historical sweep of the combat myth from the battles of Ba’al and Yam, of Marduk and Tiamat, through biblical Israel’s declaration that ‘YHWH is king’ demonstrates the power of this paradigm.”
Christians added their own layer in seeing themselves as more chosen than the chosen. To the paradigm of brother set against brother, younger against elder, Christians perpetrated anti-Semitism through medieval centuries. What from one perspective is visionary conviction from another is crowned-sibling rivalry. “Violence is cyclical, creating resentment and revenge fantasies in those it defeats.” “To create a new peaceful order we must break the pattern of violence.”
In regard to Shambrook’s truths, Pritchard calls for repentance and apology from Britain. The responsibility rests with Britain to go back and unravel its contribution to the conflict thread. In regard to anti-Semitism, the Church needs to do a Shambrook on itself in a way that is widely understood. We are not bystanders in the 2023 conflict, innocent and apart, but brothers and sisters. We need to own our responsibility and see aspects of ourselves in the estranged combatants, brothers caught up in a pre-historical myth.
In eight weeks’ time, “Away in a manger”, “Silent night”, and “O little town of Bethlehem” will be sung in schools and churches throughout the land. The words already turn to ashes in my mouth. We are watching Good Friday. Christmas and Good Friday are not seasonal events, but everyday occurrences. They make their own urgent and unforeseen timing.
Chronology is occurring in reverse: flight into Egypt, preceded by massacre of the innocents, preceded by births in the rubble, preceded by shattered tower blocks and kibbutzim. In the ruins, there has to lie a betrothed couple, who were looking ahead with promise and in the divinity of their love to the miracle of a child.
PETER LIDDELL 25 St Marys Court, Ottway Walk Welwyn AL6 9AU
From Mr Nigel Wildish
Sir, — I live among many Jewish people, as I am a resident of Finchley. I am, therefore, more painfully aware than many of the suffering of our British Jews as a result of the rise of anti-Semitism. I am sure we all condemn that anti-Semitism. I would like to see our religious leaders publicly reaching out to the leaders of other faiths in this country in order to share platforms calling for an end to anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
Our bishops have a difficult job in knowing what to say. They are right, in my view, to call for a pause of the bombing of Gaza for humanitarian purposes. Perhaps they should also call for an end to the attacks on non-Jewish Israelis by settlers who have occupied lands previously occupied by others. Your report on 3 November highlighted the plight of the victims of those attacks.
In my view, there is more that our Bishops can say. They should be calling on Hamas to return the hostages (being held against all the rules of war, and in return for which the Israeli government has said it will agree to the pause) and to protect their own people: if they want to have a secure electricity supply into Gaza, they should cease bombing the supply lines; they should move their civilians south, and stay away from hospitals. They should not abuse the small success of the corridor into Egypt by smuggling across injured Hamas terrorists.
Leaders and those who conduct war have a duty, which the Bishops can remind them of, of caring for the innocent on their own side as well as the other. They should also call out the “child murder” denial, in relation to those people in this country who deny the pictures of Israeli children who were cruelly murdured.
NIGEL WILDISH (Reader) 25B Ravensdale Avenue London N12 9HP
From Mr Richard W. Symonds
Sir, — On 9 February, the present Bishop of Chichester, Dr Martin Warner, spoke about his wartime predecessor Bishop George Bell and his controversial House of Lords speech 79 years earlier, on 9 February 1944: “Bell asserted that the rule of law was emblazoned on the banner beneath which the forces of the Crown were engaged in 1944. The symbol of the sceptre entrusted to the Sovereign in the Coronation is the acknowledgement of a higher authority and law, to which all are accountable.”
This accountability includes every country and its government — not just our own.
RICHARD W. SYMONDS The Bell Society 2 Lychgate Cottages Ifield Street, Ifield Village Crawley, West Sussex RH11 0NN
From the Revd Dr Ian K. Duffield
Sir, — The inability to distinguish between terrorist atrocities and a military response directed at a terrorist organisation embedded within a civilian population is a matter of concern. Just because it is a messy and distressing situation, with many casualties on both sides, moral discernment is vital. To equate one with the other is to make a profound moral misjudgement.
On Saturday in The Times, the Chief Rabbi called for “moral clarity” and spoke of the “moral chasm” between Hamas and Israel. Why is it that so many of our citizens (even Christians), especially those marching on our streets, apparently lack moral discernment on this issue? Perhaps it is partly because of the diminishment of the Judaeo-Christian moral tradition within our society and its replacement by other norms, such as a utilitarian calculus that arithmetically determines morality by totalling casualties.
On this basis, almost all victors in war would find themselves on the wrong side of the calculation, including Britain in the Second World War. Such crude calculations obviate the need for moral discernment, as they, at the same time, can be cynically used to lend legitimacy to terrorist entities such as Hamas — an unfortunate and morally hazardous result.
IAN K. DUFFIELD Director of Research Urban Theology Union Victoria Methodist Hall Norfolk Street, Sheffield S1 2JB
From Canon M. R. Ainsworth
Sir, — There are various ways of reading the psalms and scriptures at morning and evening prayer, some of them painful. May I suggest that, for the time being, we attempt to read them as through the eyes of Palestinian Christians (who are largely forgotten in the media)?
MICHAEL AINSWORTH 4 Beech Court, 4 Willow Bank Fallowfield, Manchester M14 6XN
Chapter needs to act on Bell name – Church Times – February 24 2023
From Mr David Lamming
Sir, — Roy Sully (Letters, 17 February) * is entirely right to call for the restoration of the name George Bell House to the diocesan guest house at 4 Canon Lane, Chichester. Although Dr Warner’s view must surely be influential, restoring Bell’s name is, however, a matter for the Dean and Chapter of the cathedral, not the bishop.
After the recent retirement of the Very Revd Stephen Waine as Dean, the former Dean of St Paul’s, the Rt Revd Graeme Knowles, was installed by Dr Warner on 11 January as Acting Dean, to serve until Easter 2023.
May I suggest that Bishop Knowles could ensure that his brief tenure as Dean is memorable by securing the restoration of Bell’s name — a restoration that, at the latest, should have followed the Archbishop of Canterbury’s apology for his “significant cloud” remark (News, 19 November 2021).
DAVID LAMMING 20 Holbrook Barn Road Boxford, Suffolk CO10 5HU
Restoration of the name of George Bell House
From Mr Roy Sully
Sir, — It was good to read the reflections of the Bishop of Chichester, Dr Martin Warner (Comment, 10 February), on the bravery of his predecessor at Chichester, George Bell, in speaking out against the blanket bombing of German cities during the Second World War. May I suggest that Dr Warner now go a step further and restore the name of the diocesan guest house at 4 Canon Lane, which until recently was named in honour of Bishop George Bell?
ROY SULLY
253 Shakespeare Tower
London EC2Y 8DR
Dear Editor
On my way to the ‘Devil’s Jumps’ archaeological site on the South Downs, I decided to go into Funtington village church.
Sitting in the peaceful calm, I read its parish magazine – a piece by the Bishop of Chichester Martin Warner.
The Bishop was asking the diocese parishioners to focus on being more engaged, more generous, and more open.
Regarding the wartime Bishop of Chichester George Bell, Bishop Warner could hardly be said to be more engaged, more generous or more open – in fact, his silence has been deafening.
I left the beautiful church of peace and calm, and carried on to my destination.
on Wednesday, 11 May 2022 at 11.48 am by Peter Owen categorised as Opinion
Martyn PercyProspectWhy I’m leaving the Church of England “Mired in allegations of partisanship and incompetence, the Church is now incapable of running its own affairs. After a series of farcical “safeguarding” claims, the former dean of Christ Church, Oxford, no longer feels he belongs” [This is covered as a news item in The Guardian and Church Times.]
Religion news 12 May 2022Religion Media CentreMartyn Percy, former Dean of Christ Church Oxford, quits the Church of England; More money for struggling parishes and front-line services; …
‘RESTORE BELL HOUSE NAME’ – CHICHESTER OBSERVER LETTERS – MARCH 3 2022
Dear Editor
Bishop of Chichester Dr. Martin Warner states [‘Faith Matters’, Observer, Feb 24]:
“We’ve been badly hit by Storm Eunice followed by Storm Franklin. The impact of these storms is immense”
The impact of ‘Storm Bell’ will also be immense, unless George Bell House is properly restored at 4 Canon Lane – before the Archbishop’s visit to this Cathedral City.
Portrait by William Coldstream [in storage at Pallant House Gallery Chichester]
“MAKE VOICES HEARD ON BELL” – CHICHESTER OBSERVER – LETTERS DECEMBER 2 2021
Dear Editor
As Marilyn Billingham, widow of Professor Peter Billingham, says [Opinion, November 25]:
“George Bell was the Bishop of Chichester from 1929-1958; a matter of great pride to the people of the city”
These people – and others – must now make their powerful voices fully heard, if the good name of this wartime bishop is to be fully restored within the Cathedral city.
RICHARD W. SYMONDS The Bell Society
“A SERVICE OF REPARATION” – CHICHESTER OBSERVER – LETTERS – DECEMBER 2 2021
It’s joyful news that the Archbishop of Canterbury has rescinded his claim that a ‘significant cloud’ hangs over the former Bishop of Chichester George Bell, who died in 1958.
Six years’ injustice (since the accusation against Bell was first made public in 2015) has thus been overturned.
According to your report (November 25) the present Bishop of Chichester Martin Warner welcomes the Archbishop’s statement as ‘both humble and courageous, reminding us that these virtues … do still surface in the Church of England of our own time’.
Maybe so. But isn’t the obverse of that comment that those same virtues manifestly did not surface in the Church of England during the last six years? To be blunt, Bishop Bell’s reputation was thrown to the dogs.
More can be said. The attack on Bell’s reputation was in the first instance due to the Archbishop. But Martin Warner by not challenging it was himself complicit. The same goes for the Dean of Chichester and the rest of our Cathedral Chapter.
Astonishingly, not one serving bishop or senior cleric of the Church made any attempt to defend Bishop Bell during that time. Though Bell, as they well knew, was a towering figure in his day, of unassailable moral grandeur, against whom the accusation of 2015 seemed to outsiders simply inconceivable.
Further, as far as I know no serving member of the clergy in the entire Chichester diocese felt moved to take Bell’s side.
It is time we heard from the Dean and Chapter on the matter. To date, no statement on their behalf has appeared on the Cathedral website.
Does Dean Stephen Waine maintain his previous view of Bell’s guilt? Or is he ready (like Martin Warner, it seems) to follow the Archbishop in his unexpected volte face?
Bishop Bell deserves a more obvious and sincere apology from both Cathedral and Diocese.
Could the Dean perhaps announce a grand service of reparation, maybe in the form of a special Evensong? It could very suitably be held on George Bell’s birthday (February 4th, a Friday next year).
DRTIM HUDSON
Hawthorn Close,
Chichester
“REOPEN CAFE IN BELL’S NAME” – CHICHESTER OBSERVER – LETTERS – DECEMBER 2 2021
Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, has now unreservedly apologised for mistakes made in failing to manage the process of abuse allegations against Bishop Bell ‘with the consistency, clarity or accountability to meet the high standards rightly demanded of us’ [Observer November 25].
Welby retracts his previous claim saying a ‘significant cloud’ should no longer tarnish Bell’s distinguished reputation.
In regretful atonement, Welby has announced a statue to be erected on the west front of Canterbury Cathedral celebrating ‘the huge debt owed him which extends far beyond the Church he served’.
I ask Stephen Waine, Dean of Chichester Cathedral, to follow Justin Welby’s fine example by restoring Bishop Bell’s good name, not with a statue, but with reopening The Bishop Bell Tea Rooms and Shop to the benefit of the community and local economy.
PETER LANSLEY
Cedar Drive, Chichester
LORD LEXDEN LETTER – DAILY TELEGRAPH – NOVEMBER 25 2021
SIR — Bishop Bell’s name must be put back on the buildings in Chichester, as the Rev Dr Barry Orford insists (Letters, November 23). There is no sign, however, that the current Bishop of Chichester, Martin Warner, with whom I have clashed in the House of Lords, intends to lift a finger.
Last week he praised the statement by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, as “both humble and courageous, reminding us that these virtues, evident in George Bell himself, do still surface in the Church of England”.
It is an outrage to put Archbishop Welby on the same plane as the great man whose reputation he traduced. Bishop Warner added that he had “no plans to make any further comments”. Anglicans must give him no peace until he either does his duty or resigns.
Oct 22 2015 – “I would be grateful…if you could refrain from including George Bell in your guided tours and external presentations” – Dean of Chichester Cathedral, The Very Reverend Stephen Waine [to Cathedral Guides]
Page 37 of Cathedral Guide ‘Society and Faith’ [later, the Guide was pulped]https://richardwsymonds.wordpress.com/2021/11/17/november-17-2021-i-was-wrong-says-archbishop-welby/embed/#?secret=cn0NvKdEHG
When Bishop George Bell was wrongly condemned by the Church of England as a child abuser in 2015, his name was removed from a number of buildings in his Chichester diocese that had been dedicated to his memory. Now that the Archbishop of Canterbury has belatedly accepted the Church’s error (see below), the Bishop’s name must be restored to all the places from which it was shamefully expunged. In a letter published in The Daily Telegraph on 25 November, Alistair Lexden urged Anglicans to demand action by the current Bishop of Chichester.
SIR — Bishop Bell’s name must be put back on the buildings in Chichester, as the Rev Dr Barry Orford insists (Letters, November 23). There is no sign, however, that the current Bishop of Chichester, Martin Warner, with whom I have clashed in the House of Lords, intends to lift a finger.
Last week he praised the statement by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, as “both humble and courageous, reminding us that these virtues, evident in George Bell himself, do still surface in the Church of England”.
It is an outrage to put Archbishop Welby on the same plane as the great man whose reputation he traduced. Bishop Warner added that he had “no plans to make any further comments”. Anglicans must give him no peace until he either does his duty or resigns.
In 2016, Alistair Lexden joined a number of academics, politicians, lawyers, clerics and writers in a group which was established to refute the Church of England’s condemnation of Bishop George Bell, one of greatest of all Anglican bishops who died in 1958, as a child sex abuser.
Oct 22 2015 – “I would be grateful…if you could refrain from including George Bell in your guided tours and external presentations” – Dean of Chichester Cathedral, The Very Reverend Stephen Waine [to Cathedral Guides]
“Supporters express delight and hopes for further changes”
Supporters of Bishop Bell have expressed delight at the Archbishop’s statement about Bishop Bell.
Marilyn Billingham said that his remaining family, and many who still hold his memory in the highest regard, were please and hoped that he will now be fondly remembered.
She said: “It is with great thankfulness that we hear that The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby publicly withdraw his claim that there is ‘a cloud over Bishop Bell’s name’, following the isolated and unsubstantiated claim of child sexual abuse and affirm that ‘Bishop George Bell was and remains one of the most courageous, distinguished Anglican bishops of the last century’. George Bell was the Bishop of Chichester from 1929-1958; a matter of great pride to the people of the city”.
She said she hoped a previous decision to remove his name from a city building [4 Canon Lane – Ed] would now be reversed.
“As Archbishop Welby looks forward to the placing of a statue to Bishop Bell by the famous west door of Canterbury Cathedral, perhaps the Dean and Chapter and the current Bishop of Chichester [Dr Martin Warner – Ed] could also publicly celebrate.
Richard W. Symonds from The Bell Society added: “The process of healing can now take place in a spirit of forgiveness, reconciliation and bridge-building – starting with the re-naming of 4 Canon Lane Chichester back to George Bell House”.
[RWS Note – 26/11/2021 – Updated 29/11/2021 – An event is planned for Tuesday February 1 2022 at George Bell House, 4 Canon Lane, Chichester. Other related planned events include one at Westminster on February 3 2022 and another in Chichester on February 4 2022. More details to follow…]
The Bell Society 