Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Marsha De Cordova and Lindsay Hoyle

Thursday 3rd July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Marsha De Cordova]

I thank my hon. Friend for his important question. There is no safe space for children in Gaza, where we know that over 56,000 people have lost their lives, including more than 17,000 children. The Church has rightly condemned the attacks on hospitals and civilians, but we can certainly do more and the Church must do more. The Church must continue to be a voice for the voiceless, and Gazan children are the voiceless. I encourage the Government to enable medical evacuations, heed calls for the creation of a Gaza family visa scheme and take concrete steps to ensure Israel allows vital medical aid into Gaza.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Father of the House.

[Sir Edward Leigh (Gainsborough) (Con)]

The Christian town of Taybeh is the same town as Ephraim in John’s gospel where Jesus went before his passion. This town is entering a new passion: there was a violent attack by extremist Israeli settlers on the town on 26 June. There is a continuing pattern of crops being destroyed and outposts being set up, and it is happening all over the west bank. This is outrageous racial cleansing, deliberately designed to prevent a two-state solution and to drive out the people who have tended their crops there for 2,000 years. Will the Church of England call out this outrage every day of the week in an attempt to put some sort of pressure on the Israeli Government?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Marsha De Cordova and Lindsay Hoyle

Thursday 22nd May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Marsha De Cordova]

We can all agree that the mass atrocities in Gaza and the attacks on civilians in the west bank have been repeatedly raised at Church Commissioner questions—indeed, by my hon. Friend on previous occasions. I have written to my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary on this issue. I can assure my hon. Friend that bishops of the Church of England have regularly visited Palestine to hear from Christians on the ground, but it is clear that to see an end to military and settler attacks on Palestinian worshippers, we need to see an end to occupation. The Church was deeply concerned that worshippers were restricted from worshipping during the Easter period.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Father of the House.

[Sir Edward Leigh (Gainsborough) (Con)]

This week I met Rana Musa of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate. Under the traditional status quo, the Israeli authorities levied arnona—the property tax—only on Church-owned business properties, but they are now levying it on Church properties used for religious purposes. That is an existential crisis for the Christian churches in Jerusalem. It is part of a pattern of intolerable pressure that has resulted in a reduction of the Christian population in the west bank to just 45,000 people. That must stop. I beg the Church of England, the Catholic Church, all Christians in this country and everybody else to shout at the top of their voices that Christians in the Holy Land deserve to be treated with respect.

--- Later in debate ---

[Martin Vickers (Brigg and Immingham) (Con)]

Interfaith work is vital to our local communities up and down the country. Does the hon. Lady agree that leadership is important and that if the Church of England were to follow the Roman Catholic Church and appoint its leader in days rather than months, it would give a great boost to interfaith work?

[Mr Speaker]

Marsha, chair the conclave! [Laughter.]

[Marsha De Cordova]

If only, Mr Speaker—though I do have the right colours on this morning.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Marsha De Cordova and Lindsay Hoyle

Thursday 28th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

There is only a tenuous link there, so good luck with that.

[Marsha De Cordova]

I agree with you, Mr Speaker, but I congratulate the hon. Member on trying so diligently on that question. What I will say is that I will happily write to him with a response to that, if that is okay.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Marsha De Cordova and Lindsay Hoyle

Thursday 17th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Greg Smith (Mid Buckinghamshire) (Con)]

5. What steps the Church is taking to recognise the positive impact of individual members of the clergy in the communities they serve.

[Mr Speaker]

I call Marsha de Cordova—you are earning your money today.

[Marsha De Cordova]

I certainly am, and so are my thighs.

At a national level, the contribution of local clergy and lay people is usually recognised through the Archbishops’ medals or a Lambeth degree. Most dioceses also have their own awards. Clergy and lay volunteers are eligible for nomination to relevant orders, and for decorations and medals, and there are opportunities in the wider civil honours system where appropriate.