REV GILES FRASER: Church's 'Hamas tribute' is yet another howler from our posturing progressives

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By REV GILES FRASER, VICAR OF ST ANNES, KEW

Published: 00:35 BST, 20 September 2026 | Updated: 00:37 BST, 20 September 2026

To those of us just trying to get on with the job of being a vicar, it is depressing that the Church of England's leadership has become so ideologically captured by the progressive lanyard class.

Last week Leeds Minster ran a pro-Palestinian project featuring a tapestry depicting the victims of the Gaza war – including, it transpires, dozens of Hamas terrorists.

Not again, I sighed, as I was photocopying service sheets, worrying about getting a new treasurer and thinking about one of my congregation having chemotherapy.

But it feels like the Church leadership would prefer parishes address global causes, from Gaza to historic slavery, rather than look after the spiritual needs of our communities.

It dumbfounds me that the Church wants to give up £100million for slavery reparations – and to take this money from a fund established by Queen Anne in 1704 for the benefit of churches and poor clergy.

They want us to be Net Zero by 2030, which is plainly impossible to achieve, given that we are custodians of the largest number of listed, medieval and frankly draughty buildings in the country.

They pass grossly one-sided resolutions on Israel and Gaza that have set back interfaith relations with the Jewish community by years.

So the fact that the tapestry exhibition in Leeds had to be cancelled due to a lack of forethought and, as a result, complaints by Jewish groups is, sadly, no surprise.

Rev Giles Fraser criticised the Church’s involvement in Gaza and Israel, slavery reparations and climate policy, arguing that these issues are distracting from its core responsibility to serve local congregations

The tapestry, called Stitch Their Names Together, listed the names of people who have died in the conflict with Israel and had been due to remain on display at Leeds Minster until Sunday

It does not make for a good week for the Church of England.

A few days ago, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dame Sarah Mullally, was forced to withdraw an award given to Muslim cleric Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi, after it emerged that he had praised Osama Bin Laden and called Hamas attackers 'freedom fighters'.

In June, she visited a woman active in the student wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, an organisation that participated in the October 7 2023 attack.

She was photographed next to a painting of the woman's uncle, who Mossad assassinated for helping organise the 1972 murder of Israeli athletes in Munich.

This could all be just naivety, but I suspect the problem stems from how the Church hierarchy sees itself. 

In their minds, they are more like politicians, who see Christianity as the same as liberal progressive politics, which requires them to save the world – though not in a salvation kind of way.

Our archbishops fly into conflict zones as if they were global ambassadors. The Church Commissioners sit on £11.6billion in assets while we struggle to make ends meet with a few faithful volunteers.

Until the Church shakes off its political posturing and sense of self-importance, it will continue to make these howlers, which only serve to alienate the parishioners we are called to attend.