I BEHELD AND, LO, A GREAT MULTITUDE ...

UCH IS the vision of heavenly worship given to us in the Book of Revelation. The more numerous and diverse we are, the closer our worship is to the worship of the company of heaven. Thriving congregations have people of all age-groups, men and women and children, rich and poor, those of different nationalities and ethnic backgrounds.

As in this country we relish our diversity, we are living through the painful experience of wondering whether we've got it all wrong. We could see the problem with the French model - a secular society in which religion, of whatever kind, is required to be discreet and private. That solution blew up, almost literally, in the very suburbs of Paris. Now we can see the problem with the British model - a multicultural, multifaith model, where everyone 'does his or her own thing'. Priding ourselves on our inclusiveness, we have managed to grow our own urban terrorists and create ghettoes of one culture or another. It all gets discussed round the neckwear of air hostesses, the headgear of Muslim women and whether 'faith schools' work without being diluted by people of other faiths or no faith. In the midst of this the secularists - Richard Dawkins, famously, but the chattering classes generally - scoff at religion and point to its record on violence. This, of course, ignores entirely destruction of human life by Stalin, Hitler, Mao, and the other monsters of the last century, most of whom were atheists and all of whom were enemies of the great religions.

As we look around for another model of earthly society - living and working for the Kingdom of God - many of us remember an older model which may not entirely have had its day. It is there in the British Constitution and in the foundation of the Commonwealth. It says that the religion of Great Britain and its monarch is Christian, and that these are the values by which society at large makes its ethical and moral judgments. Subjects of the Queen, under this umbrella, are free to practise their own religion and maintain and develop their own beliefs and customs, but are called to live and work together for the good of society. I'm afraid to say that it is not people of other faiths who have conspired to destroy this model - indeed, the more Christian our faith and practice, the more other faiths enjoy being in our midst - but those of no religion. It is far from clear what ethical and moral basis we have for any common life once we separate ourselves from God. Certainly no-one has yet come up with a convincing alternative, neither Marx nor Dawkins. The French have been trying to develop secular citizenship for over 200 years and they haven't cracked it. The Advent Hope of the Kingdom of Heaven is not possible without the Lenten call to human society: 'return to the Lord your God'.

May God bless us as we pray and work for the coming of the Kingdom.

+ Andrew Ebbsfleet



This pastoral letter may be downloaded as a PDF file for display purposes by clicking here,

or as an RTF file for easy copy-and-pasting into pew sheets and parish magazines by clicking here.
 

The Bishop of Ebbsfleet
Bishop's House, Dry Sandford, Abingdon, OXON OX13 6JP
Tel: +44 (0) 1865 390746

All text and images on the web site of the See of Ebbsfleet are
© The Bishop of Ebbsfleet unless otherwise acknowledged.

The menu system is the intellectual property of www.milonic.com