The editorial of the week of 09/09/2022 with Camille: Elizabeth II, anti-Semitism, Luka Binniyat, Bible translation

The editorial of the week with Camille is a summary of the four key topics that animated the Christian sphere this week. 

This is obviously one of the key events of the week, which you will hear about everywhere: Queen Elizabeth II breathed its last Thursday at his summer home in Balmoral, Scotland. She was 96 years old and had acceded to the throne in 1952 at the age of 25. The British people are "in mourning" headlines the press across the Channel and a ten-day national mourning begins this Friday.

Everywhere, tributes to the queen are multiplying, anonymous, celebrities, heads of state salute the memory of a woman who marked history. We choose to retain the homage of the spiritual leader of the Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby who has put forward, “the deeply rooted Christian faith” of the late queen.

“As a faithful Christian disciple, and also Supreme Governor of the Church of England, she lived her faith every day of her life. Her trust in God and her deep love for him were the basis of how she lived her life – hour after hour, day after day,” he wrote.

Another subject that has made headlines twice this week is the fight in Europe against anti-Semitism in the light of the past. 

On September 5, 1972, during the Munich Olympics, members of the Palestinian terrorist organization "Black September" took hostage and then killed 11 athletes from the Israeli delegation.

Monday, during the commemorations of the fiftieth anniversary of the drama, German head of state Frank-Walter Steinmeier asks relatives of Israeli victims for “pardon”. He also took responsibility for the various "failures" that accompanied this tragedy. A statement long awaited by Israel.

And on Wednesday in France, Éric de Moulins-Beaufort, president of the Conference of Bishops of France, Christian Krieger, president of the Protestant Federation of France, and Haïm Korsia, chief rabbi of France, paid tribute to the Righteous who saved the Jews during World War II, during a joint statement which also pointed to “guilty silences” and the “deadly soil” of “Christian anti-Judaism”.

Each week, part of this editorial is dedicated to persecuted Christians around the world. Today we are interested in the case of Luka Binniyat. 

Luka Binniyat is a journalist, defender of persecuted Christians in Nigeria, which earned him imprisonment. He was to be heard in court on Tuesday, a hearing which will have to be postponed, because for the second time in this case, the judge did not show up for the trial.

A few days before the hearing, the accused declared that he remained, despite everything, trusting in God. "I know the Lord is in control," he said.

This week, the Alliance Biblique Française takes stock of the state of Bible translation in the world.

She reveals that despite the disruption caused by the pandemic, Bible Societies around the world have been working hard in 2021 to make Scripture accessible to as many people as possible. Thus since the beginning of 2022, 5,8 billion people have the entire Bible while 11 million people can read Bible texts in their language for the first time.

"It's as if God speaks our language", says pastor Henry Mumba, originally from Zambia, who converted at the age of 19 and who waited until he was 58 to read the Word in his mother tongue.

Camille Westphal Perrier