The Church in Wales is encouraging people to join their Christian-Jewish Lent course this month.

Launched together with the Council of Christians and Jews, the course will focus on understanding Judaism and promoting interfaith collaboration.

“It's a course where we're going to understand our neighbours better, we're going to learn about Judaism [and] we're going to reflect on the scriptures that we share,” Canon Sion Rhys Evans, Sub-Dean at Saint Deiniol’s Cathedral told Premier.

Entitled ‘You remember your covenant forever - Discerning a path for Christian-Jewish relations’, the three-part online course will explore shared scriptures and reflect on historical instances of Christian persecution of the Jewish community, especially during Holy Week.

Each session will be led by two speakers from the Council of Christians and Jews' national team, Avigail Simmonds-Rosten and Dr James Roberts.

Asked about the inspiration for the course, Canon Evans said it came from a “number of places”, including “an understanding that we need to do more work on reconciliation [and] on understanding our own traditions” as well as the “the discomfort that we can feel as Christians when, we in this international climate at the moment, read some of our own scriptures, and scriptures that we share with the Jewish traditions, which needs some exploring”.

The Archbishop of Wales, Rt Rev Andrew John, has endorsed the course. He said: “Our aching, broken world is in desperate need of reconciliation and healing across ancient boundaries. We can all play our own part by gaining a deeper understanding of our history, our theology and our neighbours.

“I want to commend the partnership between Saint Deiniol’s Cathedral and the Council of Christians and Jews, and to encourage you to participate in study, reflection and prayer for reconciliation and healing this Lent.”

The course will run on Wednesday, 21st February, 6th March, and 20th March at 6 pm.