[Episcopal News Service] The Passion of Jesus poses a perennial liturgical dilemma, one rooted in the biblical narrative’s centuries of prominence in Holy Week services. Episcopalians, consciously or not, confront it each year in their lectionary readings, particularly on Good Friday. The Episcopal Church cited its “problematic” references to “the Jews” when it offered sermon guidance eight years ago for Episcopal clergy struggling to provide the proper context. How to solve this problem of the Gospel of John? The trouble lies in the history of anti-Judaism associated with this foundational Christian text. In January, the Diocese of Washington’s convention approved a resolution that calls on The Episcopal Church to renew its study of the Holy Week lectionary: “to remedy passages that use language that has been interpreted as antisemitic while maintaining the meaning and intent of the original Greek texts.” The resolution will be sent to the 80th General Convention for consideration when it meets next year. The diocesan resolution was submitted by a group from St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., including Josie Jordan, the congregation’s head verger. The problem hit home for Jordan about 10 years ago, when she was a teacher and chaplain at National Cathedral School, a girls’ school on Washington National Cathedral’s close. On Good Friday, she attended an all-school worship service at the cathedral with more than 500 students, faculty and staff members. During the Gospel, they listened to John describe Jesus’ crucifixion at the insistence of “the Jews.” Afterward, a fifth-grader came to Jordan in tears. “She was Jewish and she also loved her school, and she was having a really difficult time putting these two things together. And we realized that we had made a misstep by not either changing a word or two or finding a way to contextualize it,” Jordan, 68, told Episcopal News Service. “That really woke me up to what people hear without a lot of context. … What people hear sounds pretty antisemitic.” Christian denominations, including The Episcopal Church, have long grappled with liturgies, doctrine and Scripture that have at times fueled hatred against Jews, most consequentially during the Holocaust. Some common translations of the Gospel of John still use the phrase “the Jews” dozens of times, often depicted as Jesus’ antagonists, as opposed to more neutral language like “the crowd.” Biblical scholars note such “problematic passages” can be found throughout the New Testament but are most troubling in the Passion narrative of John 18-19. Those are the chapters recited by most Christian churches every Good Friday, which falls on April 2 this year. “Preachers have propagated the idea, from the earliest times and continuing into our own day, that the Jews as a people bear responsibility for the death of Jesus,” The Episcopal Church’s Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music, or SCLM, said in 2013 when it issued guidance on the Holy Week lectionary. “Quite commonly on Good Friday, Jewish families would remain hidden in their homes in order to avoid abuse and even death.” Today, as Episcopal congregations prepare for Holy Week and Easter, preachers bear the “enormous responsibility” of diffusing anti-Jewish prejudice by providing appropriate historical context for the Gospel readings, according to SCLM, which first began developing its guidance in response to a 2006 General Convention resolution on addressing anti-Judaism. General Convention passed similar resolutions at four straight triennial meetings, most recently in 2015. It asked SCLM “to collect, review, and disseminate materials to address Christian anti-Judaism expressed in and stirred by portions of Christian scriptures and liturgical texts.” SCLM’s guidance has not alleviated what some see as the central difficulty with the lectionary and Bible translations. The Episcopal Church and other mainline Protestant denominations follow the schedule of readings known as the Revised Common Lectionary, which anchors John 18-19 on Good Friday. The Bible most familiar to Episcopalians, the New Revised Standard Version, names “the Jews” as Jesus’ antagonists in John’s narrative. The Diocese of Washington’s resolution takes aim at those unresolved concerns. Its sense of urgency is heightened by outbreaks of anti-Jewish violence across the United States in recent years, including deadly attacks at synagogues and other Jewish gathering places. The resolution also cites Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s statement last year against the rise in antisemitism. “I invite everyone who follows Jesus and his way of love to stand with our Jewish brothers, sisters and siblings,” Curry said as part of an interfaith solidarity campaign launched by the American Jewish Committee in response a rash of attacks on American Jews. “An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.” Anti-Judaism thrives on Christians’ misunderstanding of Judaism and Jewish tradition, and the Christian lectionary is partly responsible, according to Amy-Jill Levine, a New Testament and Jewish studies professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Levine, as guest preacher during Washington National Cathedral’s March 7 online worship service, praised the Diocese of Washington for its recent resolution. “It is a blessing to know that you are attending to the lectionary because there is much work to be done,” said Levine, who is Jewish. “Sometimes, texts need a warning label. Sometimes lectionaries, and not just for Holy Week, need to be revised. … Christian teaching need not malign Jewish tradition in order to make Jesus look good.” What changes are merited? The Washington resolution doesn’t specify, though its supporting materials include suggestions in a scholarly article written 20 years ago during the Roman Catholic Church’s deliberations over its Holy Week lectionary. The article listed five options to consider for Good Friday: Read John 18-19 in full, with the preacher required to address the problematic language. Condense John 18-19 to avoid those problematic passages. Assemble a thematic series of John readings that isn’t focused solely on the Passion. Read the Passion narrative from one of the other three Gospels, instead of John. Read John 18-19 nearly in full, eliminating certain words. The Diocese of Washington’s resolution has sparked lively debate … Continue reading Church faces renewed pressure to change Good Friday liturgy that risks fueling anti-Jewish hatred