Nothing says 'we've moved on from biblical basics' quite like a church synod deciding that a document branding Israel with every fashionable accusation under the sun deserves a respectful hearing. Yet here we are in mid-July 2026, fresh from the Church of England General Synod's debate and vote to listen to Kairos II, watching a group of clearer-headed Christian outfits hit back with a public declaration that pulls no punches.
The declaration, launched by Regan King, pastor of Angel Church Islington, and backed by outfits including Christian Action Against Antisemitism, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem and Revelation TV, has already picked up 1,758 signatures. Christians from the Church of England, the Anglican Church in North America, Pentecostal and free evangelical circles have all added their names. One suspects they read the thing and reached for the smelling salts.
Kairos II, released by Palestinian Christians in November 2025 and also called A Moment of Truth: Faith in a Time of Genocide, does what such documents tend to do. It frames the situation in Gaza and the West Bank as genocide, ethnic cleansing, settler colonialism and apartheid. The Synod, never one to miss a chance to appear compassionate, voted to 'hear' it rather than swallow it whole. Small mercies.
The counter-declaration takes a rather more old-fashioned line. It insists that biblical covenant promises to the Jewish people remain enduring and irrevocable. Nations, including Israel, have the right to self-defence. Christians should pray for the peace of Jerusalem. And, in what feels like a revolutionary statement these days, scripture is the authoritative word of God. Fancy that.
It rejects any theology that demonises Israel or the Jewish people, any claim that Zionism is inherently unbiblical, and any use of scripture to support a contested political theology as if it were the gospel.
The document does not stop at affirmations. It accuses Kairos II of bearing false witness, hindering genuine peace, ignoring the root causes of the conflict and rationalising the atrocities of 7 October 2023. According to the Religion Media Centre, the organisers describe their statement as a biblical response to Kairos II and any other secular, Marxist or unscriptural framework of liberation theology, all while affirming compassion for everyone caught up in the misery and a genuine desire for peace.
That last bit matters. The signatories are not calling for indifference to suffering. They are refusing to let one side's narrative rewrite two thousand years of Christian thinking or airbrush Jewish connection to the land. As Regan King put it in the text of the declaration: 'We simply cannot receive Kairos II or endorse any hearing of it in a Christian context, and we explicitly reject it and denounce the same.'
