It’s apparent from the Web that in America religion is as much an irritant on the public consciousness as politics. I mean, you get bitten by the media and you can’t help scratching all the time. So the agenda is stolen. I don’t want to react to the state of religion in America or in the media. Religion is not about controversy but something dear to the individual’s heart.
Over here, the media would naturally like to stir up any hornet’s nest they can find; but there isn’t so much mileage in religious issues, which are considered of interest mainly to their own congregations. On the other hand, religion is public property: the Church of England is Established in our (non-existent) constitution, i.e. the Queen is its Head, and so on. When I was researching the office of Mayor for a biography*, I was surprised at the number of civic events held in the form of a service at the Parish Church. The Mayor attended all these in a year:
* Scouts Service
* Women’s World Day of Prayer
Salvation Army Toy Service (at Salvation Army Citadel)
* Mendelssohn Hymn of Praise (Choral)
* Royal Air Force Freedom of High Wycombe Service
Annual Convention at Church of God of Prophecy
* Thanksgiving Service Godstowe School
* Wycombe Abbey School Centenary Speech Day service (sermon by Lord Runcie, former Archbishop of Canterbury)
Remembrance and thanksgiving service, Sue Ryder Hospice (at Nettlebed Parish Church)
Mayors’ Civic Service in Aylesbury
* St Vincent and the Grenadines Association 17th Anniversary church service.
Carol Service at the Swan Theatre
Town mayor’s centenary civic service. Also attended by HM Lord Lieutenant for Buckinghamshire, Commander the Lord Cottesloe KstJ, JP, RN (Retd) (at All Saints Parish Church, Marlow)
Chairman’s Civic Service (at All Saints Parish Church, Marlow)
A service of thanksgiving and blessing for the opening of Harleyford Golf Club (at the club)
* Battle of Britain Sunday
Licensing of team vicar (at Basilica of St Mary & St George, Sands, High Wycombe)
* For all our babies and children
* Mayor’s Civic service
* Remembrance Day service
Salvation Army Christmas music (at Salvation Army Citadel)
Services marked with asterisk were held at the Parish Church of All Saints, in a town with 15% Muslim population. As far as I am aware, a Muslim mayor would attend the same services. Each mayor by the way is elected for a year. The post is ceremonial, very much like the Queen’s.
My illustration shows the full ceremonial costume at the weighing-in ceremony, a tradition which goes back to the days of Queen Anne. Sebert Graham is the incumbent in the photo (1995), and the subject of the (commissioned) biography. The book is available on Amazon.co.uk, should you be interested. I am not trying to promote it! My point is to show how religion can be treated in a settled population. I don’t mean literally settled. There are many (temporary) immigrants here in the last few years, from Poland & Zimbabwe especially.
In England there are many beautiful churches and cathedrals, going back a thousand years or more in many cases. As someone said the other day, they are an enduring form of prayer in themselves: the buildings, their stained-glass windows, so much devotion carved into their stones. As religion retreats like a millennial tide, these buildings are left on the shores like dinosaurs’ bones, and no one knows what to do with them when the congregations stop coming.
a wayfarer’s notes 
Perhaps no one remembers what to do with them, because they don't remember what they were for or even why such grand structures were erected in the first place. Perhaps they want to forget.
I like the way you pointed out all these civic services being held in the name of a church. Isn't it interesting how all of these services have very little to do with the actual connection of humanity with a higher power (except maybe hob-nobbing with the mayor)?
It's very much like that across the pond. Churches have become more a place for civic events than for “holy respite.”
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Not sure what you mean, Tim. they were always intended as community i.e. civic centres. religion was then central to culture.
connection to higher power can take place anywhere. These buildings were constructed by voluntary effort as a form of worship.
The continued existence of civic services, despite the religious orientation of those attending, is to me the right way to go. I would not dream of entering a church that is restricted in any way to a certain sect. These parish churches and cathedrals are open to all, for all respectful purposes, and that is a glory.
Take for example the Royal Air Force Freedom of High Wycombe Service. The RAF has an important HQ nearby. Freedom of High Wycombe means that the holders are entitled to “bear arms” in the town. they could in principle march with fixed bayonets in the town square. And this is sanctified in a religious way. It means that the people and authorities humble themselves before God, as in medieval times.
In a similar way, a witness giving evidence in a British court is asked hold the Bible in right hand and “swear by almighty God that the evidence I shall give shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.” The witness doesn't have to read the Bible or agree with its contents.
I think all these traditions are good, and would be ruined if they were associated with some narrow set of beliefs. The aim is to find the highest common factor! Perhaps you won't agree.
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Every religion has its minimum presence in social life: births, marriages and deaths, even success in business—in Malaysia I visited “buddhist” temples erected by the Chinese, alongside hindu temples and mosques and catholic cathedrals etc – each the focal point for a large community. The extent to which the worshippers followed the spirit of their creed was not questioned and wasn't necessarily to the point either.
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Most of my respect for religion is as a patron of the arts. Even though manipulation of subject matter is so dominant, the opportunity for developing craftsmanship was great in proportion.
Could this comment be a good example of stressing appreciation?
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interesting post Vincent
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Again, read and written offline Vincent….Religions have to keep their people busy, year round, lots to do, idle hands are the devils workshop, the devil is anything that threatens the systems, angels are a hard bunch, praise God and mind the store.
What religions build over thousands of years, one word could surpass in a moment, given the right word and the right time…..this comes from your later post which declares the possible method of healing by Jesus.
In the conscious daylight world, we have a myriad of systems, all basically the same, variants all. The place for systems is in the unconscious darkness, with life lived in daylight…..everything is presently backwards or reversed, good is bad, bad is good, and duality doesn't exist, but we choose one over the other and call it religious. What is it we build that is real but reversed? I believe that righting it will cure it, by a miracle, how do you say 'religion' backwards?
Just some thoughts Vincent, very interesting posts.
Then the comments…
I gather from these comments that what is being worshipped as God is what humans are and can do, the power and the quality of their manipulation of mind and material.
Suppose that is TRUTH, subjective then to the species. Suppose that that subjective entity is ONE. Suppose that entity has a singular psychology which can voice itself to any of the constituent elements, at will and by need of either the large or the small.
Just some thoughts from the comments, I find interesting, these things.
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Jim, your comments as ever illuminate the subject, often in sudden inexplicable ways, as consciousness jumps to a dimension beyond intellect. Thanks today and always.
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Brad4d, yes, the arts indeed and the anonymity of the artists and craftsmen too. Once all art was religious, not a cult of individualism.
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