Presbyterian church in Ireland under fire over Gaza indifference

A group of around 30 protesters gathered outside the Presbyterian Church in Ireland’s (PCI) Assembly Buildings Conference Centre, calling for the church to take action against so-called Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. The demonstration was staged to coincide with a Special General Assembly at the opulent Belfast premises on Thursday December 18, held to discuss a separate but arguably related matter – the fallout from “failures in safeguarding“.

This is essentially a nice way of saying the PCI did virtually nothing to protect those in its care from predatory paedos.

Those demonstrating highlighted the church’s failure to protect the children in Gaza, where the Zionist regime has killed at least 20,000 innocent young people – probably far more. The PCI has been essentially silent on this modern-day holocaust.

A scan of their X feed shows two mentions of Gaza in the last two years, and none of Palestine. Even these references to the mass slaughter frame the matter in misleading “both sides” terms, describing the “suffering in Gaza and Israel“. They compound this by mischaracterising the Zionist mass murder campaign as “war in the Gaza Strip“, as they “hope” for an end to the violence.

Presbyterian Church failing to be the good Samaritan

Among the groups present were Christians for Palestine, who said:

The church was holding an all-Ireland assembly to discuss their child protection failings. We reminded them of their failure to stand up for the children of Gaza. In the parable of the good Samaritan it was the Priest and the Levite who walked by on the other side. In our present day it’s ministers and elders.

We implore Presbyterian Church of Ireland- and indeed all Christians – to stand for humanity and justice, as Jesus asks us. What good is your faith for if you say nothing while entire families scream under the rubble?

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Protester chants included:

We are thousands, we are millions – where are all the Presbyterians?

and

PCI PCI – how many kids will you let die?

BDS Belfast were also present, and a video posted to their Instagram page shows demonstrators imploring those in attendance to do more. One woman says:

Act likes Christians today! Don’t just worship, don’t just speak the word!

Another said:

They [‘Israelis’] are abusing children and killing them. They have many 1000s of Palestinians locked up being tortured every single day. Why do our lives matter more? Why do we get to live? Where is the justice for the people of Palestine?

There was limited engagement from PCI members entering the building. One man said he had helped Palestinian families around Belfast. Others gave thumbs up, though more common were glares or an attempt to ignore the protest entirely.

Protesters made it clear the issue wasn’t with individuals, but with PCI as a “corporate body”. They stressed that some individual Presbyterian churches had done good work for Palestine.

PCI failed to safeguard children in its care, and ignores the murder of those in Gaza

At the General Assembly meeting, head of the PCI Rev Dr Richard Murray issued an apology for the victims of those harmed as a result of the church’s failure to protect them. He said:

It’s necessary that we gather together in this special General Assembly to grieve and lament for those who have been hurt and harmed – and for their families who have to pick up the pieces.

There will be things these good people have to live with for the rest of their lives. And to them we say sorry, that you have been hurt or harmed, or both, by our failings.

The meeting heard various proposals to prevent people once again being subjected to sexual abuse. These included the setting up of a new safeguarding department and what the BBC describes as an “independent, external review of safeguarding.”

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) is currently carrying out a criminal investigation as a result of the PCI’s disclosure in November that it had failed on safeguarding. The probe will:

…seek to establish victims of offending and their perpetrators, and if criminal offences have been committed by those responsible for safeguarding.

It took the criminal conviction of a volunteer youth worker to prompt the PCI into investigating its failure to protect local children. He admitted to:

…three charges of inciting two different children under the age of 13 into sexual activity.

As horrifying as that is, the Zionist pseudo-state has subjected the children of Gaza to even worse. All churches must do more to speak out on their behalf, or continue to prove protesters right when they say: