In Full Communion

Anglicans and Lutherans working together in Canada

Churches call for open flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza

Dear Prime Minister:

We are writing to express our outrage regarding Israel’s ongoing attacks on the Palestinian people and to call on the government of Canada to use all diplomatic tools to push for an immediate flow of life-saving food, water, aid, fuel and humanitarian assistance.

Beyond the devastating effects of ongoing missile attacks, Israel has now prevented humanitarian aid from entering Gaza for more than two months. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has warned of acute malnutrition worsening among children in Gaza. The Gaza government’s media office recently said that famine is no longer a looming threat but is becoming a reality, adding that 52 people, including 50 children, have died due to hunger and malnutrition since the blockade was imposed.¹ In a report in late April, the OCHA said it has identified about 10,000 cases of acute malnutrition among children across Gaza, including 1,600 cases of severe acute malnutrition, since the start of 2025. It is hard to put into words how cruel and deadly it is to be blocking humanitarian assistance.

On May 5, Israel approved plans to seize the Gaza Strip and to stay in the Palestinian territory for an unspecified length of time, according to two Israeli officials.² As we have communicated before, there is a fundamental need for an end of occupation so a just peace can begin. All plans to relocate Palestinian people out of Gaza violate international law and are the opposite of what is needed for peace. In the context of ongoing attacks, blocking of humanitarian aid, and threats to relocate the residents of Gaza, we call on Canada to end all arms transfers to Israel. We also ask you to communicate Canada’s desire to see an enduring and sustained ceasefire and the release of all captives.

Our call for peace is rooted in our relationship with partner churches, the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land. We continue to join with Primate Hosam Naoum and Bishop Sani Ibrahim Azar in calling upon all governments and people of good will to intervene to stop all attacks on medical and humanitarian institutions so that hope and life may be sustained and strengthened.

Yours in Christ,

The Rev. Susan Johnson
National Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada

The Most Rev. Anne Germond
Acting Primate
Anglican Church of Canada

1 https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/gaza-malnutrition-children-blockade-israel-1.7524680
2 https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/israel-hamas-gaza-offensive-expansion-1.7526358

Matthew 10:40-42

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Rewards

40 “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. ⁴¹Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous, ⁴²and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

John 15:12-17

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ¹³No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. ¹⁶You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. ¹⁷I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

John 21:15-19

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Jesus and Peter

15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” ¹⁶A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” ¹⁷He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. ¹⁸Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” ¹⁹(He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.”

Luke 11:33-36

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

The Light of the Body

33 “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a bushel basket; rather, one puts it on the lampstand so that those who enter may see the light. ³⁴Your eye is the lamp of your body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but if it is unhealthy, your body is full of darkness. ³⁵Therefore consider whether the light in you is not darkness. ³⁶But if your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, it will be as full of light as when a lamp gives you light with its rays.”

Matthew 8:1-4

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Jesus Cleanses a Man

8 When Jesus had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed him, ²and there was a man with a skin disease who came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” ³He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing. Be made clean!” Immediately his skin disease was cleansed. ⁴Then Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”