Churches unite to debate our future in Europe
A NEW website designed to act as a forum for those who disagree on Britain’s future as part of Europe has been launched in the run-up the forthcoming European Referendum.
The joint initiative between the Church of England and the Church of Scotland, ‘Reimagining Europe: Our Shared Futures’, is described as a space to consider the ‘European Question’ from first principles with ‘theological resonance’ such as ‘diversity’, ‘subsidiarity’ and ‘sovereignty’.
Contributors include Bishop for West Yorkshire and the Dales, the Rt Rev Nick Banes, Editorial and Programme Director at the Institute of Economic Affairs, Philip Booth and Conservative MP David Burrowes.
Jonathan Chaplin, Director of the Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics and Deputy Chairman of UKIP, Suzanne Evans are also contributors, as well as the Rt Rev Robert Innes and the second contributing Conservative member, Caroline Spellman.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, offered the first blog to the site, titled ‘Learning to Disagree well on Europe.’
Opening his post, the Archbishop comments on a French colleague he worked with in his private sector years, who retorted: “You British just don’t get it. Europe is about peace, not money.”
The blog is to ‘encourage a clearly values-based approach to Britain’s future relationship with the EU; one that includes, but does not end with, economic and political perspectives,’ the Archbishop writes.
The Rt Rev Dr Angus Morrison, Moderator of the Church of Scotland’s General Assembly, writes in his blog ‘Towards an informed debate on our shared futures’, of his declared interest in continued EU membership.
“This of course does not mean that we will be telling people from the pulpit how they should vote, but I hope it shows that we are up for a vibrant and energising debate,” he writes.
Conservative MP for Enfield Southgate, David Burrowes, writes that: “We must not leave it to the loud voices of the pro-European establishment or the apocalyptical opponents to dominate Christian discourse” and nailing ‘his colours to the mast’ describes himself as a ‘Christian Eurosceptic’ in his entry ‘Is the EU fit or purpose?’
Arguing that the ‘EU does not sit comfortably’ with decentralisation of power, which he calls an ‘important biblical principle’, he writes: “A cardinal point that needs to be addressed is that we are not really Christian Eurosceptics but Christian ‘BrusselsSceptics’.”
In his ‘Postcard from Berne’, Anglican Archdeacon of Switzerland, the Ven Canon Peter Potter, asks what the costs are of being outside the Eurozone.
Prof Werner G Jeanrond, Master of St Benet’s Hall, University of Oxford, in his blog reflects on ‘the greater project of Europe’ and UKIP Deputy Chairman, Suzanne Evans writes that: “Many EU policies seem calculated to inflame division rather than bring harmony,” in her entry, ‘The EU and the inevitable slide into secular authoritarianism.’
Anglican Bishop in Europe, the Rt Rev Robert Innes, asks whether the EU is ‘a secular realm from which God is excluded?’ in his blog ‘The EU-not as godless as you might think’.