The Church of Englishness
by Martin Sewell, Archbishop Cranmer:
Upon reading Archbishop Stephen Cotterell’s remarks on English identity in the Telegraph, I was reminded of the time I was reading the Law Society Gazette whilst waiting for a court case to be called. An interesting report caught my eye: in the course of an employment law dispute, the judge was offering some remarks on what it means to belong to a country, and his reflections stuck with me long after the case faded from memory. I wish I had kept it.
This was long before European jurisprudence took a grip of our thinking via the Human Rights Act. The judge did not attempt to envision a concept of “pure Englishness”, but rather proceeded to build his reasoning empirically, drawing on pragmatic observation.
Archbishop Stephen would approve that the analysis began by recognising that many societies are faith-based; their dominant culture growing out of a shared religious heritage – Japan, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Italy and India being obvious examples. Their distinctive characters are rooted in the core faith and cultural narrative from which and by which they were formed. England is no different. Even as some may describe us as ‘post-Christian’ in these British islands, the influence of our historic religion endures. In England’s case, 500 years of Protestantism cannot easily be left out of our evaluation of who ‘we’ are, whether that be for good or evil.
That is far from saying that everyone does or must subscribe to the same faith, but in all examples it would be hard to describe the culture without some significant references to those foundational beliefs. In this sense, even atheistic countries like North Korea are no less shaped by a core belief system.
One cannot sensibly conceptualise England outside of its historic religious framework. Its parish system was for centuries a key element of social identification, not least through poor law relief. Our lowest tier of self-governance is still often the parish council. For centuries, the Prince Bishop of Durham was a major political figure in the North. Elsewhere, the Bishops created schools and Oxbridge colleges; and religious orders founded hospitals.
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