Cherish and respect our Christian roots
By Romy Cerratti, TCW:
MUCH of the commentary about the Queen’s funeral has observed that the spectacle was a superb advert for ‘Brand UK’. Certainly one might reasonably assume that there will be at least a short-term boom in tourism and perhaps even international trade/business as a result. However this period since our Queen’s death has also been a fantastic ‘advert’ for Christianity. Of course the Queen’s whole 70-year reign, in which she demonstrably and consistently put duty and service over her private needs, was an advert for the Christian faith that was her rock. Yet whilst Queen Elizabeth was grounded in Christianity, the idea that the UK is still a Christian country in any meaningful sense has dwindled over the years along with church attendance. You will struggle to find a politician who dares talk about ‘Christian values’. Even the idea of ‘British values’ has been drained of all real meaning. The obsession with viewing the queue to see the Queen lying in state as the ultimate representation of Great Britain is telling. No other nation loves an orderly queue as much as we do but it’s hardly the basis for national identity and community. The very different spectacle in Leicester, the daily street fighting between groups of Muslim and Hindu men with various national affiliations, has shown us that the UK is painfully fractured underneath sporadic, temporary plasters of communal spirit.
Surprisingly, it has been two people who have previously threatened the status of Christianity in the UK, Archbishop Welby and King Charles, who have eloquently reminded us of why our nation must remain a Christian one. A while ago our new King raised alarm in Christian circles with his statement that he would like to be ‘defender of faiths’ rather than ‘the faith’. However in his first address to the nation he made it clear that his Anglican faith guided him as it did his mother. Moreover he rowed back from any notion that he would seek to represent all faiths. As to whether this resolve lasts only time will tell. When it came to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s funeral sermon, it is true that the biblical reading, John 14: 1-6, gave him little room to avoid mentioning the core of the Christian faith. However to be fair to Justin Welby he did not fudge it. ‘Her late Majesty’s example was not set through her position or her ambition, but through whom she followed.’ As that reading from the Gospel of John tells us, Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life. No one goes to the Father except through me.’ The Bible is unfashionably uncompromising. Christianity however gives us the values of tolerance and freedom, as well as service to others and care for the vulnerable, that our modern nation needs.
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