From the Assistant Bishop
Building Bridges Instead
of Walls: In Memory of
Pope Francis
The Rt Revd Hans Christiansen, Assistant Bishop
The world is full of walls and fences. I remember my first trip to the Holy Land many, many years ago when I was a teenager. My parents showed me the Israel-Lebanon border and told me that the border with its fences and watchtowers was then one of the most heavily guarded in the world. I remember feeling frightened. Since then, I have unfortunately seen too many walls and fences.
Humanity is good at building walls. Some walls, such as for example the ancient walls of Constantinople, are beautiful architectural masterpieces. But we only admire walls, it seems, when they are broken down. Walls are built to protect us and keep us safe, but often they end up causing disenfranchisement, pain and anger.
In the past decade the United States and some European countries have sought to build fenced ‘walls’ around themselves in order to stop the flow of hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers. Here in Australia, we have built our own symbolic walls offshore to stop asylum seekers entering our land by boat.
Over a decade ago, I had the privilege of visiting Bethlehem on the West Bank. I wanted to see the famous icon ‘The Lady Who Brings Down Walls’ written by the British iconographer, Ian Knowles, on the huge Separation Wall. As I walked along the wall separating those who live on the West Bank from those who live on the Israeli side, I became more and more grieved. Here I was walking on the soil where Jesus, our Saviour and the Prince of Peace, was born and yet right there was this huge wall erected, barring people from the West Bank to enter into Israel.
Then suddenly I saw the icon of Mary on the wall. The image of Mary is huge. She gazes at the viewer with the divine child in her arms and underneath her is painted hole in the wall where one can see olive trees and the buildings of the Holy City of Jerusalem. As I stood there looking at the icon I was overcome with emotion and hope that maybe one day Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza will again be able to live side by side with the people in the State of Israel and there will be no more need for a wall and huge fences.
With the horrific war raging on in Gaza and spilling over into the West Bank, this hope does seem like a distant dream. But so did the breaking down of the Berlin Wall seem for people in the 1960-1980s until suddenly the wall came tumbling down in 1989. What seemed impossible became possible. And so, I keep hoping and praying that the separation wall between the West Bank and Israel and the fences cutting off Gaza from Israel will also one day come down so the children of Abraham, the people of the Book: Jews, Christians and Muslim can live in peace together again.
These days we mourn the death of Pope Francis, the Bishop of Rome, who was a great proponent of interfaith dialogue and peace work. I am reminded of Pope Francis being interviewed in 2016 about his opinion on Donald Trump’s proposal in his first Presidency to halt illegal immigration in the United States. As is now well known, and often quoted during these days of commemorating Pope Francis, the Pope said: ‘A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not a Christian’.
Christians are called to be bridge-builders and not makers of barriers and walls, as Pope Francis reminded us. Easier said than done, of course. Sometimes walls can serve a purpose for a while. But we must never accept that walls have to remain for ever. Sometimes we need the words of courageous Christian leaders like Pope Francis to call us back to the core occupation of any Christian. Ultimately, as Christians, we must do everything in our power to build bridges, however small in our own contexts, and continue to hope that our efforts will bear fruits.
Soon we will celebrate National Reconciliation Week in Australia which runs between 27 May and 3 June. I encourage you all to pray for a spirit of reconciliation and healing between First Nations Peoples and non-First Nations people to sweep across our nation. As a Diocese we are committed to work for reconciliation. I am encouraged to learn about the different initiatives in our parishes, agencies and schools to forge closer bonds between First Nations and
non-First Nations people and I encourage all of you to continue to do this important work in your local contexts.
The Kingdom of God is like a tiny mustard seed but when watered and nurtured it can grow and become a place where birds can nest (Luke 13: 18-19). Our efforts at building bridges and working for reconciliation, however small, will ultimately help bring down walls and break down barriers. If so, we are aligned with the Lady who breaks down walls and we come closer to Christ who calls us all to become peacemakers (Matthew 5:9) and bridge builders.
Blessings,
+Hans