… which, all things considered, is a fairly appropriate moment to return to the subject of faith in our liberal times.  Earlier this month a Cassandra-like figure, Jayne Ozanne, lit up a debate in the Church of England with a private paper she submitted to the Archbishop’s Council.  It was leaked and in it she wrote this:-

I see a time of great persecution coming, which will drive Christianity all but underground in the West. I believe that this will primarily take the form of a social and economic persecution, where Christians will be ridiculed for their faith and pressurised into making it a purely private matter.

Meanwhile, the established Church will continue to implode and self-destruct, fragmenting into various divisions over a range of internal issues. There will be an increasing number who fear man more than God, and who shy away from admitting that there is any absolute truth. Instead, they will seek to promote a gospel that is socially acceptable to all. As a result, many will continue to leave – disaffected and dismayed by the lack of faith and courage needed to stand the ground.

Having reached the end of a six-year stint, she submitted the paper in her last act as an elected member of the Council.  It was hardly received with universal gratitude - not least, one suspects, because of the freedom-fighting dramatics she employed.  Rowan Williams is obviously not at heart the survivalist woodsman fighting his private battle against the forces of darkness.  In any case, he isn’t able to respond personally.  In the interests of Church unity any modern-day Archbishop of Canterbury is compelled to suppress his personal views on divisive matters such as homosexuality among the clergy.  It was left to a spokesman to observe that one of the Council’s strengths was “the wide range of perspectives offered by its members.  Jayne Ozanne is setting out her personal view, as she is clearly free to express it.  The Church of England encourages a lively exchange of views at every level.”

A “lively exchange of views” is, of course, code for we will

hear this.  The principle of avoiding the giving of offence to liberals is, if not sacrosanct, certainly predominant, and the departure of conservative Christians is the cost that no one wants to properly evaluate.  In other words, there is a dissonance between the liberal hierarchy and the wider congregation with power residing, as usual, in the hierarchy.  Or, as Jayne Ozanne put it in a later interview: whilst her paper was “not exactly good news for the Church of England it was good news for the Church in England.”

She can be heard here (Real Player) together with Bishop John Gladwin in a six-minute slot from the BBC Radio programme Sunday.  It was broadcast on December 12th.

So in our national religious life, as everywhere, we see the same tension between the liberal “ought” and the popular “is”.  We are tearing ourselves apart in this way.  Liberalism is not a creed that the people can live.  It ignores their reality.  It is destructive.  The liberal establishment that has come into possession of our institutions – our Church, our political parties, our civil service, our schools and universities, even what must now be called our police service -  is blindly selfish in the pursuit of its goals.  As a conservative one is entitled to ask how so many intelligent and educated people have come to believe as they do, and to call it service to a disillusioned and forsaken people.  It is an enduring mystery - save the possibility, of course, that the answer lies in that pregnant bon mot, “educated”.

But anyway this is Christmas.  So I hope all MR readers will put the secular aside over the next day or so and contemplate an infinitely greater mystery.  Thank you for your interest during these past weeks.  Without you we would have to pack up and go home, which is one sure way to get rid of us, I suppose.

Not “Merry Winterval” then, and not “Happy Holidays” but a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.