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Canon Dr Clare Amos

Profile picture of Dr Clare Amos

Dr Clare Amos is a Director and Trustee for The Jerusalem and the Middle East Church Association. Until her retirement in 2018 she was working for the World Council of Churches where she had overall responsibility for the WCC's programme for interreligious dialogue, with a particular focus on relations with Judaism and Islam. Prior to starting work at the World Council of Churches in 2011, Clare worked for 10 years for the Anglican Communion Office taking charge of work in theological education and interreligious concerns.

Clare is a biblical scholar by background and her long standing involvement with the Middle East began in 1973, when she went to Jerusalem to study for two years at the Dominican Ecole Biblique in the city. In 1975 she was thrilled to be offered the position of Course Director at St George's College (linked to the Anglican Cathedral). On her marriage in 1978 she moved to Beirut, Lebanon, where she spent nearly five years - supporting her husband's work as Anglican chaplain in the city and lecturing at the Near East School of Theology.

In recent years, her work at the World Council of Churches and the Anglican Communion has meant that she has visited the Middle East regularly - apart from Jerusalem itself. Recent visits have included Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, the UAE, Qatar and Cyprus.

Among her fairly recent publications are, Peace-ing Together Jerusalem (2014); the chapter on the Christian understanding of human rights in The Concept of Human Rights in Judaism, Christianity and Islam  by Georges Tamer and Catharina Rachik (2022);  Birthpangs and Blessings: A commentary on the Book of Genesis (2022); a chapter on the Christian theological understanding of COVID in The COVID Pandemic and the World's Religions, edited Dan Cohn-Sherbok and George  Chryssides (2023), and she is currently writing a book for the World Council of Churches exploring issues of religion and violence.

In 2012 Clare was awarded the Lambeth Doctorate of Divinity by Archbishop Rowan Williams to mark her work in interreligious and ecumenical encounter and biblical studies; in August 2023 she was made a Canon of St Paul's pro-Cathedral Valetta in recognition of her work in developing lay learning in the Diocese in Europe.