Parish of York
Holocaust Memorial Day
Service
Holy Trinity Church, York – 12 April, 2026
Holocaust Memorial Day was honoured at a 5.30pm service on Sunday, 12 April at Holy Trinity Church, York, when local Jews and Christians worshipped together.
In 2025 the United Nations General Assembly designated 27 January as Holocaust Memorial Day, the date when Auschwitz was liberated by Soviet troops. Given that date’s proximity to Australia Day the observance in Australia oftentimes takes place on the 27th day of the Jewish month of Nisan which in 2026 was
14 April.
At the service Mr Martin Moen of the Holocaust Institute of Western Australia provided an engaging, if not confronting, address as he recalled the story of his mother, Erica Deen, who survived Nazi occupation of her homeland, the Netherlands, while losing many if not all her immediate and extended family. Martin also recalled the courageous acts of those who assisted his mother in hiding from and avoiding the Nazis, noting that four of the five families were Christian. He concluded his address by reminding the congregation of the need for eternal vigilance against such horrors as antisemitism which not only affects Jews but “corrodes” the fabric of all society.
His address did highlight the theme for Holocaust Memorial Day in 2026 “Bridging Generations”; a theme chosen not only as a call to action, but as a reminder that the responsibility of remembrance does not end with survivors, but lives on through children, grandchildren, indeed, all of us. As such the observance of Holocaust Memorial Day encourages people to engage actively with the past, to listen, to learn and to carry lessons forward, and by doing so build bridges between memory and action, between history and hope for the future. As time passes the risk of memory fading and the sharp reality of what happened at the Holocaust and at more recent genocides such as Rwanda, Cambodia, Bosnia and Darfur, becomes blurred, abstract and in the minds of some, questioned.
The service at Holy Trinity Church was conducted to honour that need and hope. In his sermon, The Revd Canon Dr Philip Raymont, Priest-in-Charge of the Parish of York, drew on the words of leading English cleric and ethicist, The Revd Dr Sam Wells, Vicar, St Martin-in-the Fields, London, who in his sermon for the BBC Radio 4 Holocaust Memorial Service had spoken of his Jewish, German and Ukrainian roots. In doing so the content of the radio sermon reminded listeners that in a respectful relationship between Jews and Christians, Christians need recall that Judaism is the parent of Christianity “it’s the manger in which Christ is laid. The incarnate Jesus is a Jew. The risen and ascended Jesus, sitting at the right of the Father, is still a Jew. God’s promise to Isreal is not broken . The Jews are still God’s chosen people.” Wells asserted that throughout Mediaeval and Early Modern Europe Jews were ostracised, blamed and feared, culminating in the Holocaust. His final observation drawing on Genesis Chapter 12, Verses 1-3, where God says to Abraham “I will bless those who bless you” was to ask to what extent had Christians been a blessing to Jews?
Readings of “The Butterfly”, a poem by Pavel Friedmann, and “First they came”, by Martin Niemoller, added to the solemnity and meaningfulness of the occasion as did the singing of four hymns: The God of Abraham praise, Lead, kindly light, Dear Father, Lord of humankind, and The Lord’s my shepherd. After the service Dr Raymont expressed the hope that this might be the first of regular annual services and would gain further support from members of the broader Avon Valley, not least those concerned that humanity might be humane, and not inhumane, in its treatment of itself.
