Holocaust Memorial Day falls on January 27. This month’s question is: ‘Does your church mark Holocaust Memorial Day?’

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The Rev Aftab Gohar, minister at Grangemouth: Abbotsgrange

“Every year on January 27 we remember the Holocaust. The Holocaust was a genocide in which approximately six million Jews and millions of others were killed by the Nazi regime and its partners.

“When we look around us, we can see a lot of mass killings throughout the world even today, especially in Nigeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and Israel- Palestine, on the basis of religion, colour, race and language.

“Have we ever thought about the cause of this hatred, fighting and killing? “For me the main reason for this is ‘Lack of Tolerance’. Tolerance is a word which means, to allow something you do not approve of, or to put up with something unpleasant. In other words we can say that to live with someone, whose thoughts, religion, race, colour or language is different from ours.

“Most of us judge other people around us, on the basis of their religion, race, colour, language, Or ability and disability, which causes the actual trouble. If we all learn, this one word “Tolerance”, then we can see a real peace and harmony around us. The best and appropriate word for Tolerance is ACCEPTANCE. We need to accept others as they are, and try to abide with them peacefully.

“The Holocaust and other mass killings are there to teach us, that these are the worst examples of intolerance and inhumanity, and we can avoid these thing to happen in our time by accepting everyone around us, with all their differences.

“Remembering the Holocaust in our churches and in schools is very important. We need to realise that it happened, so it can happen again, and we need to learn from our past and help our generation to avoid this thing happening in our time.”

The Rev Sandy Strachan, retired.

“Come with me to a place of horror and almost tangible evil. It’s early in the morning of the last day of 2016, and it’s cold with thick frost lying on the ground.

“It’s chilling; not just physically, but spiritually. This is Auschwitz, and I’m visiting the notorious concentration camp on an end of the year trip to Krakow.

“When I was a parish minister and then a hospital chaplain (I’m now retired), the congregations I served, and the folk to whom I ministered in the healthcare setting, didn’t mark Holocaust Day (January 27 – the day on which Auschwitz was finally liberated).

“Why not? I don’t know. Perhaps because we are somewhat inured to the atrocities committed by the Nazis against the Jewish, Roma, Polish and other innocents. Perhaps it’s because it seems so far away in time.

“But I would defy anyone who has felt the chill of Auschwitz or any of the other places of horror associated with the Nazi persecution, who has seen what’s left of the gas chambers, or the piles of shoes or the collection of battered suitcases on show in Auschwitz, not to be moved.

“It is a salutary reminder of the inhumanity of wicked men that we should note and note well.

As it happens, I will be leading worship (as pulpit supply) on the Sunday before Holocaust Day in January and will certainly now meditate with the congregation on the hellishness of what was perpetrated back then, and pray that it is never repeated (although, tragically, there have been too many incidences of ethnic cleansing since).

“I would hope that other ministers and worship leaders would do so too……...”

QUESTION

Dot Getliffe Deacon/Parish Assistant, Aberdeen: Mannofield

“My father was Jewish and travelled to Britain in 1938 as a refugee before ‘Kristallnacht ’ during the Holocaust.

“My siblings and I never knew any of Dad’s close family such as his brother or parents, because they were carted off like animals to the slaughter that was the gas chambers, in one of the concentration camps. I know this, since we have accessed Yad Veshem Museum in Jerusalem, which houses all the records.

“I do think some kind of marker should be mentioned in our church services, since the roots of our Christian faith lie in the Old Testament stories and historical events of the growing of the Israelite nation. I understand that during the Prayer for Others within Sunday Worship here in Mannofield, Aberdeen, on the Sunday nearest to Holocaust Memorial Day, the Holocaust survivors are mentioned.

“Glad to say that towards the end of his life, my father linked in again to (by then) other Messianic believers in Scotland and would you believe it, my father, when he naturalised his Eastern European name, married my mother – A Quaker Gentile, and became a Church of Scotland minister!

“God has been faithful to our family but there is much we do not know. If anyone can help, please contact ‘Life and Work’ in the first instance.

“In closing, I attended ( in my last post in east Glasgow) a local joint Catholic and Non Denominational Primary Holocaust Event which the children had done the art work and research for.

“They gave an extremely moving presentation, and how wonderful to hear the next generation recognising the injustices and the warnings of Neo- Nazism in our day.”

The Rev Jenny Adams, minister at Duffus, Spynie & Hopeman

“Our congregation has not marked Holocaust Memorial Day. Being asked triggered some guilty feelings, and ‘why not?’

“I am aware of Holocaust Memorial Day, because our local secondary schools mark it, and local press report their commemorations. I recognise the importance of remembering genocide, and of challenging discrimination, racism and hatred. I am concerned about politics that divides people into “them” and “us” according to nationality, race, gender, sexuality, faith tradition, caste, age or opinion, and limits the human rights of “them.”

“This is really important to challenge, and marking Holocaust Memorial Day would help do that.

“So, I considered Holocaust Memorial Day, January 27, in relation to our 2018 Sunday gatherings. On Sunday January 28 we will have a Year Of Young People launch service – another important focus, valuing young people.

“Do these concerns combine, or do we have to choose?

“There are many significant days and weeks throughout the year, within Church and society. Many relate to God’s way of living, loving our neighbour as we love ourselves. Many challenge us and open our hearts and minds to Kingdom values. But does my congregation’s marking of them depend on my personal priorities and awareness, and on prompts coming at the right time, rather than on a conscious decision of the congregation’s leadership?

“Our congregation has not yet marked Holocaust Memorial Day, but we should have a conversation about what we remember and how – so there’s something for a Kirk Session agenda.”

The Rev David Pitkeathly, minister, the Border Kirk, Carlisle

“We have no practice of having a related event on the assigned date.

“However, in my ministry, I have viewed the last two weeks of January as a precious opportunity to reflect on differences that arise between people often through prejudice and how a Christian commitment to acceptance, equality and reconciliation can overcome such deep seated feelings. “Holocaust Memorial Day falls near to the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and Martin Luther‘s King’s birthday.

“In sermons and prayers in that season, I have sought to explore lessons that can be learnt from history’s painful past but also how we can build bridges.

“It is also about working together in loving grace and good purpose in the future.

“As a congregation, we have recently reflected in some depth on the life of Jane Haining, who was born nearby on a farm near the Dumfriesshire village of Dunscore and who protected many from the worst horrors of the Holocaust, serving as matron of the Scottish Mission School in Budapest. She died in the concentration camp at Auschwitz in 1944.

“I hope this January we will continue to find inspiration from her generous and sacrificial heart.

“As a chaplain in school and university, I have also found these special days valuable opportunities to explore with young people the possibility of healthy relationships rather than the grim barriers that human beings sadly often build.”