IS BRITAIN LOSING ITS CHRISTIAN SOUL?
There was a time when Christianity was woven almost unnoticed into the fabric of British life.
Our churches stood at the centre of towns and villages. Christian teaching influenced our schools, our ceremonies, our understanding of service, charity and duty.
Generations before us built hospitals, cared for the poor, comforted the dying and served their communities because their faith told them that loving their neighbour was not optional.
Britain today i... moreIS BRITAIN LOSING ITS CHRISTIAN SOUL?
There was a time when Christianity was woven almost unnoticed into the fabric of British life.
Our churches stood at the centre of towns and villages. Christian teaching influenced our schools, our ceremonies, our understanding of service, charity and duty.
Generations before us built hospitals, cared for the poor, comforted the dying and served their communities because their faith told them that loving their neighbour was not optional.
Britain today is a very different country.
Churches are quieter. Christian belief is increasingly regarded by some as something belonging to another age. Many people now grow up with little knowledge of the faith that helped shape the society inherited from their parents and grandparents.
Should Christians respond with anger?
I don't believe so.
Christ did not teach us to hate those who disagreed with us. Nor should protecting our Christian heritage mean disrespecting people of another faith, or of no faith at all.
But tolerance of others should never require us to become embarrassed about **our own faith**.
Perhaps the greater danger to Christianity in Britain isn't simply opposition from outside.
Perhaps it is silence from within.
If we believe our faith matters, then we must live it: openly, peacefully and courageously.
For those of us beginning our journey in the Templar tradition, there is something particularly relevant here. We carry the memory of men who were prepared to make extraordinary commitments for what they believed.
Our circumstances are completely different. Our response must therefore be different too.
No sword. No hatred. No enemy required.
Our defence of Christianity in the twenty-first century should be through faith, service, charity, courage, prayer and example.
We cannot decide what Britain will believe tomorrow.
But we can decide whether Christianity disappears quietly from our own lives today.
Stand firm in faith. Serve others. And never be ashamed of whom you follow.
