CHRISTIANS who oppose nationalism gathered over the weekend, set up “listening stations” at the “Unite the Kingdom” march in London, and ate with Muslims.
At the same time, Bishops issued a prayer and new polling showed that explicitly Christian nationalist beliefs remained in a minority.
Numbers attending Tommy Robinson’s rally on Saturday were lower than the previous outing in September, according to police estimates. The Metropolitan Police report that 60,000 attended the far-Right Unite the Kingdom march, down on the 150,000 who attended last year.
It reported that 15,000 to 20,000 people attended the pro-Palestinian Nakba Day rally, which took place at the same time.
The Met said that 24 people associated with the Unite the Kingdom rally were arrested, while 12 were arrested in connection to the pro-Palestinian march.
Mr Robinson, whose birth name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, posted the Lord’s Prayer on social media before the event. He has said that he converted to Christianity in prison last year, while serving a sentence for contempt of court.
The Church of England Bishops’ Working Group for Promoting Unity in our Nation, which was set up late last year by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York in response to concerns about the use of Christian symbols by far-Right pressure groups (Features, 6 February), shared a prayer on Church of England social media channels. The prayer gives thanks for those who “build up our common life” and asks for God’s wisdom to “protect the most vulnerable among us” and his help to “love all who call these islands their home”.
It goes on to ask for God’s protection from “the perils of division and hatred”.
The working group is chaired by the Bishop of Leicester, the Rt Revd Martyn Snow. Its other members are: the Bishop of Kirkstall, the Rt Revd Arun Arora; the Bishop of Barking, the Rt Revd Lynne Cullens; the Bishop of Bradford, Dr Toby Howarth; the Bishop of Croydon, Dr Rosemarie Mallett; the Bishop of Willesden, the Rt Revd Lusa Nsenga-Ngoy; and the Bishop of Birmingham, Dr Michael Volland.
Preliminary findings from the think tank Theos, conducted by the independent market research agency RED C, suggest that Christian nationalism is a genuine phenomenon, but that it is less widespread than is widely assumed. The findings suggest a gap between support for Britain’s historic Christian identity and support for exclusionary nationalist beliefs.
In the survey of 1765 UK adults, 17 per cent thought that, to be truly British, people needed to be Christian. Just under half of these — eight per cent — strongly agreed with this statement.
Just one per cent considered being Christian to be the most important factor (from a list of 12) in being British. About 16 per cent agreed that people who did not hold Christian values did not belong in Britain; under half of these — seven per cent — strongly agreed with this statement.
Four in ten people — 41 per cent — agreed that “the law in Britain should be based on Christian values”, and 40 per cent agreed that “religious education in Britain should prioritise the teaching of Christianity ahead of other faiths.”
Better StoryThe Bishop of Edmonton, Dr Anderson Jeremiah (right), at a ‘listening station’ set up by Christian organisations
Dr Nick Spencer, senior fellow at Theos, told the Church Times: “Preliminary analysis of the data shows that Christian nationalist sentiment is real in the UK, but very much a minority view.”
Speaking about the march on Saturday, Dr Spencer continued: “Our experience, having attended several Unite the Kingdom rallies and spoken to a number of people there, is that these [concerns] are not ‘one thing’ but a messy conglomeration of various sentiments, ranging from outright Muslim hatred and xenophobia to genuine Christian revivalism and legitimate political grievance.”
During the march, Red Letter Christians, Better Story, and Christians Against The Far Right set up a listening table to speak to marchers leaving central London. Another listening station was set up for those who felt unsafe as a result of the march. Anglican priests and Baptist ministers who oppose “the co-option of Christianity by the far Right” attended the listening stations.
The Bishop of Edmonton, Dr Anderson Jeremiah, said: “One of the major concerns of people participating in this rally is that they are not being listened to. I feel that both as a priest and as a bishop, the most important thing I have to do is to listen and to hear their pain.
“As a Church, we have a duty of care to pay attention and be present in the community, rather than waiting in our churches.”
The Revd Sally Mann, a Baptist minister and co-director of Red Letter Christians, said: “We are here listening today because we believe that London needs peace envoys. We are creating a listening space for those who took part in the protest, and those who got caught up in it today. We are praying for the peace of our city. And we’re confident witnesses to Way of Jesus — a way of love and welcome, not division and fear.”
On Saturday evening, two London churches and a Muslim community association hosted The Caledonian Road Meal For Hope at Jean Stokes Community Centre in Islington; 100 guests attended.
Part of the national A Million Acts of Hope campaign — supported by the Christian campaigning group Better Story, the Church on the Corner, in Islington, and the Al Asharaf Community Welfare Association — it brought together residents of Barnsbury and the Caledonian Road from across faith traditions.
Fergus Burnett, the director of Better Story and one of the organisers from Church on the Corner, said: “As community-focused organisations we do see the divisions in society, but we also see countless daily acts of compassion that transcend differences and transform our communities.
“The Caledonian Road Meal for Hope is a celebration of these acts of hope, and a call to see boundary defying love — rather than divisive anger — as the answer to the very real issues our society faces.”
Also during the march, St Albans Cathedral hosted a public gathering of civic, faith, and community leaders to offer a united stance against the rise in anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of hate.
The event was organised as part of Herts Together, a county-wide initiative launched earlier this year under the banner “One County, Many Voices, Shared Future”.
The Lord-Lieutenant of Hertfordshire, Robert Voss, and the Dean of St Albans, the Very Revd Jo Kelly-Moore, were joined by the Chief Constable of Hertfordshire Constabulary, Andy Prophet, the MP for St Albans, Daisy Cooper, and the Bishop of Hertford, Dr Jane Mainwaring.
Dr Mainwaring said: “As someone who believes in the intrinsic value of every human life, it is a cause of deep sadness and profound regret that we are living in communities and in a country where the concept of seeing others as our neighbours, who we are called to love, is being challenged in both hidden and overt ways.”