Could we have an English National Party?

Isn't it interesting how 'wrong' that question feels? Yet in the wake of the defeat of the BNP in Barking - Nick Griffin failing to secure a seat and all the BNP Councillors losing theirs - it is a question I think worth asking, especially as many Christians seem to hate the BNP with a vengeance (and there's an issue worth debating as well).

Those same Christians seem to have no problem in principle with the Scottish, Welsh or Irish nationalist parties (respectively SNP, Plaid Cymru and Sinn Fein), but I suspect it is not just the nature of the BNP's policies, but something about our whole psyche as a nation which makes an ENP a 'no go area' even before we've considered the policy. Is this simply a national sense of guilt - and if it is, why do we have it in such huge doses when other nations don't? Or is there something inherently wrong about nationalism which we allow the other nationalist parties to get away with because they aren't English?

So my question is really two-fold. Could an English National Party be so constructed as to be a good thing? And are the other UK nationalist parties really as innocent as we suppose?

As a PS, the BNP actually got more votes than any of the other nationalist parties!

As a PPS, I am a great fan of the Union, and for that reason not a fan at all of the nationalist parties, but if that's the way we're going ...

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A very Anglican prayer for election day

Adapted from the BCP Communion service:

We beseech thee, Almighty God, to save and defend all Christian Kings, Princes, and Governors; and specially thy Servant ELIZABETH our Queen; that under her we may be godly and quietly governed: And grant unto her whole Council, and to all that are put in authority under her, that they may truly and impartially administer justice, to the punishment of wickedness and vice, and to the maintenance of thy true religion, and virtue. Amen

And while you're about it, say one for Lord Justice Laws.

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Has one man the right to change the constitution?

I ask the question not because I don't think he has, but because I honestly don't know the answer.

Apparently, according to The Times, in dismissing an appeal by Gary McFarlane, a Christian counsellor working for Relate, against discrimination on religious grounds, Lord Justice Laws has announced that, 'Christianity deserves no protection in law above other faiths [in this country] and to do so would be “irrational”, “divisive, capricious and arbitrary”'.

I find myself wondering whether he has read, or is even aware of, the Coronation Oath taken by Queen Elizabeth II, at her crowning by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1953:

Archbishop: Will you to the utmost of your power maintain the Laws of God and the true profession of the Gospel? Will you to the utmost of your power maintain in the United Kingdom the Protestant Reformed Religion established by law? Will you maintain and preserve inviolably the settlement of the Church of England, and the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government thereof, as by law established in England? And will you preserve unto the Bishops and Clergy of England, and to the Churches there committed to their charge, all such rights and privileges, as by law do or shall appertain to them or any of them?

Queen. All this I promise to do.

Now I am not saying it is right that the Queen should have taken this oath (though presumably it seemed a good idea at the time). Nor am I saying that Prince Charles, should he ever become King, ought to take the same oath (indeed, I cannot see how he possibly could). Nor, indeed, does it matter one whit whether Mr McFarlane is in the right or the wrong.

What I am saying is that this oath surely 'privileges' Christianity in the constitution of England. And I am therefore asking whether Lord Justice Laws can simply say "This is no longer the case" and it is so, with regard to such a profound issue.

I may well have misunderstood many things in this situation. Perhaps others could clarify?

John Richardson
29 April 2010

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Crucifixion, fact. Resurrection ...?

If you follow this link, you will find a stimulating article by Simon Heffer in the Daily Telegraph attributing to the English Reformation under Henry VIII the establishment of freedoms which led, ultimately, to the greatness and prosperity that England later enjoyed:

Every half-millennium or so an event occurs in our history that changes the basis of society. The Romans come, the Romans go. The Normans come; and between their arrival in 1066 and the outbreak of the Great War in 1914 there is one seismic event after which society sets off (after a false start or two) on an entirely new course: the Reformation in England. When the Convocation of Canterbury of the Church in England agreed in March 1531 to accede to Henry's demands about church governance that included the clergy's recognition of him as head of the English church, it also triggered a process of such profound economic and political change that even today there is still dispute about the extent of the consequences. Let me add my three ha'porth: without the Reformation we would not have had what Seeley called "the expansion of England", we would not have had a middle class educated and powerful enough to initiate the industrial revolution, we would not have had the empire we did, and would not have had the land and sea power that kept us free from invasion and foreign influence: not to mention the theological consequences.

That itself is worth pondering, especially on St George's day. But halfway through the article comes an additional interesting comment. Referring to the posting of Martin Luther's 95 Theses, Heffer writes,

it is an event in a foreign land in the ninth year of Henry's reign that stands as the most significant in all Christendom since the crucifixion (which we accept as historical fact: the resurrection, more significant to those who hold the Christian faith, is not for atheists like me).

Now my question is this: on what grounds do we accept the crucifixion "as historical fact" which are not also grounds for at least considering the resurrection as an historical fact? The evidence for the crucifixion is largely documentary - the attestations of those within and without the Christian tradition in the relevant period. But it is documentary sources also (indeed sometimes the same documentary sources) which testify to the resurrection.

On a different note, I would (naturally) contest that for Christians the crucifixion is (or ought to be regarded as) "more significant" than the resurrection. But that is another debate.

John Richardson
23 April 2009


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A Prayer for St George's Day

The following prayer is my own composition:

Almighty God,
We have been taught by the legend of St George
to fight against dragons and to rescue the helpless.
Deliver us by the truth of the gospel
from that great dragon who leads the whole world astray.
Free us from our slavery to sin and death.
And grant that your light may dawn again on this nation of England.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord,
Amen


Another prayer that might be suitable for assemblies:

Heavenly Father, give us the bravery of St George to stand up for what we believe. Give us the strength to overcome the dragons in our lives and in the world. And where we see people in distress, give us the compassion to help them. Amen


The following prayer is from "THE ORDER OF SERVICE AT MATTINS ON THE OCCASION OF THE 80TH BIRTHDAY OF HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN AT ST GEORGE'S CHAPEL, 23 APRIL 2006". I do not know anything other than that about the source:

The collect for St George's Day

O God of hosts, who didst so kindle the flame of love in the heart of thy servant George that he bore witness to the risen Lord by his life and by his death: grant us the same faith and power of love that we, who rejoice in his triumphs, may come to share with him the fullness of the resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

There is also this, given as the Collect for St George's Day, in Franz Hildebrandt: Mr. Valiant-for-Truth:

O Lord God of hosts who didst give grace to Thy servant George to lay aside the fear of man and to confess Thee even unto death, grant, we pray Thee, that we and all our countrymen who bear office in the world, may think lightly of earthly place and honour and rather seek to please [Jesus] the Captain of our salvation who hath chosen us to be His soldiers, to whom with Thee and the Holy Ghost be thanks and praise from all the armies of thy saints, now and for evermore. Amen.