We all know people who have changed their religion. This has always been a conspicuous part of human life. It happened 1500 years ago here in what we now know as England. Germanic invaders became Christians. Nowadays, marriage provides one motivation for change, dynastic requirements another. Adolescence may prompt an exit from a closed community like the Amish to a more easy-going urban outlook. Such a movement in reverse may also take place. Living as we all do cheek-by-jowl with followers of various faiths, we find ourselves in a different position from our great-grandfathers who lived in an insular society with no unfamiliar religions next door or in the market-place.
It was long ago in their promised land that the children of Israel had unfamiliar religions in spades on their own new doorstep. They had to remain loyal to the God who, they believed, had brought them out of bondage in Egypt. They also had to abstain from practices such as child-sacrifice and the worship of gods like Baal. In a later era the first Christians found it necessary to extricate themselves from Judaism with its requirements of circumcision, Sabbath observance etc, and work out from first principles where they stood in Jerusalem and Rome.
Once it was well established, Christendom frowned upon any rejection of the prevailing European faith. Apostasy was not something to be proud of. But nonetheless some Europeans, Sir Richard Burton, for example, became fascinated with aspects of Eastern religions and Islam. In the 21st century a society aiming at a level playing-field for all the religions can hardly expect anything other than changing religious loyalties as one of its trademarks. Nowadays it is altogether respectable to switch one’s religion. If it is reasonable in a civilised society to be free to change one’s nationality or one’s sex, surely it is equally reasonable to be free to change one’s religion without impediment.
Effectively we are ceasing to be, like Samoa, a nation with a national faith. That should be a spur to us Christians to demonstrate the validity of the faith that is publicly acknowledged in parish churches Sunday by Sunday and in day-to-day activity. It should be possible to do that without rancour and without arrogance.
SHOREDITCH STEEPLE
There’s no doubt about it. St Leonard’s church is a landmark. With its Greek temple portico and complicated steeple, it bids for attention in East London as Wren’s churches do in the City. Designed by George Dance in 1740, and known for its bells and their appearance in ‘Oranges and Lemons’, it may preserve its medieval stocks but it also serves the parish with its Lighthouse project providing practical help, food parcels and hot meals – and of course Alpha. Shoreditch has undergone some gentrification and has a long connection with the theatrical world. Shakespeare would have trodden these streets. So would the Pearly Kings and Queens. Al Gordon leads the ministry team.
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