Happy Easter

Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP

Shadow Lord Chancellor & Secretary of State for Justice

We may carry faith lightly in this country, but the natural reserve of the British character should not prevent us from acknowledging that this is a culturally Christian country, the product of a millennium and more of Christian life on the British Isles, and that the values, customs and traditions that has given us should be cherished and handed on by Christians and non-Christians alike.

It is a peculiar quirk of British politics that so few seem willing to acknowledge that we are a Christian country, with Christian values, built upon and in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Last week Downing Street’s social media accounts bombarded the country with an endless volley of happy such-and-suches. Happy Nepali New Year! Happy Shubho Noboborsho! Happy Vaisakhi! Happy Mahavir Jayanti! And so it went on.

But for days there was no mention of the start of Holy Week for millions of Christians. You can imagine the press officer, ticking off their checklist: “have we said “happy X?” or “happy Y?”. There was no interest in the inner life of faith, just its political and electoral repercussions.

This is a classic example of asymmetrical multiculturalism, where minority cultures are celebrated and promoted – while majority traditions and festivals are ignored and subsumed into empty cosmopolitanism. This thinking led to a primary school scrapping an Easter parade and church service in the name of inclusivity. The result is that the unifying and over-arching national identity that generates belonging frays.

British Christians – who still make up the single largest demographic group (in the last census 46 per cent of people said they were Christians, far exceeding the next highest religion at just 6.5 per cent) – are led to feel estranged from their own country. We have much to thank Christianity for. The principle of political liberty derives from the Christian foundations of our political institutions and political philosophy.

Our laws and what we now call human rights, have that origin too. Indeed, the very concept of the secular space, in which people are free to believe anything or nothing, has its roots in the Christian principle that everybody has value, and that it is not right to pry into the souls of other men or women.

But it is unsurprising that mainstream figures are squeamish about our Christian heritage when the Church of England seems to have lost its self-confidence. Interfaith dialogue is to be welcomed, but some church leaders appear more interested in filling their church with an Open Iftar than filling the pews for their own Sunday service.

The role of the church in our national heritage has been neglected. Parishes churches are the golden thread which connects centuries or more of religious and social life. They are more than just places of worship - they are depositories of our island story. But they are closing at an alarming rate. 1,000 are now at risk.

The closure of an ancient church barely makes the local newspaper these days, something our ancestors would have been astonished by. Politics pays little regard to such concerns. Labour have slashed the tax relief for repairs to listed places of worship and done so abruptly, casting doubt on works already underway.

My church, St Mary Magdalene in Newark – a 12th century wonder complete with cannon ball scars from the civil war – already had the scaffolding on site when Rachel Reeves pulled the plug. It’s vandalising our cultural inheritance.

The lack of interest in our Christian roots manifests itself abroad too. On Psalm Sunday dozens of Christians were massacred by Jihadists in Nigeria. Before the Syrian civil war there are estimated to have been over two million Christians living there. Less than 300,00 survive.

There will be no marches through London protesting the erasure of Christian life in the Middle East. This Easter, I will be thinking of those who are unable to celebrate their faith’s most important festival with their families.

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