THREE BISHOPS will this week lead calls for the Church of England to make a public statement standing up for the right of Christians to wear a cross.
They have signed a motion condemning the “silencing” of outward displays of Christianity in Britain and a “growing trend” towards the “restriction of religious liberty”, which is to be debated at the Church’s national assembly.
One hundred other members of the Synod, including clergy and lay people, have backed the call for the Church to defend Christians against the “overzealous” interpretation of human rights and equality legislation by judges, politicians and employers.
Its backers believe that by passing the motion the Church would make a landmark statement that wearing a cross is an integral part of the Christian faith.
It cites “ludicrous” cases of Christian practices and symbols being forbidden, saying attempts to scrap prayers at council meetings and to ban employees from wearing the cross could ultimately lead to religion being confined to the home.
The Bishop of Peterborough, the Rt Rev Donald Allister, said the move would make the point that although Christians are not bound to wear a cross they have a “duty” to be “public” about their faith as well as observing it in private.
He said: “It is to say, OK, if you say wearing a cross isn’t a compulsory part of Christianity, we agree. But it is a duty of a Christian to be public about their faith as well as private, and that is clear New Testament teaching.
“I hope the General Synod will affirm that because it’s saying to those judges – not all, but to those few – it is not quite as simple as you think.”
He added: “Christianity isn’t to be privatised and shut away behind closed doors for consenting adults – it’s public.”
The intervention by clergy and lay members of the General Synod comes as four Christians who believe they have suffered discrimination for their beliefs fight a landmark legal battle in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
The motion highlights the case of Gary Mcfarlane, a Christian relationship counsellor who was sacked by Relate, the counselling service, for refusing to provide sex therapy sessions to gay couples, which he says he cannot do because of his faith.
A court refused to uphold his case, saying that his human right to express his religion had not been breached and he is now taking the case to the ECHR in Strasbourg, along with three other cases.
The Rev Stephen Trott, a rector in Boughton, Northampton, who drew up the motion, said: “There are four cases being appealed currently to the ECHR and that’s an example of the sort of court action where we would be able to say that the established Church, which is part of the law of the land, takes the view that it’s not only a right, it’s a duty of Christians to manifest their faith in public.”
The Rev Trott said the Church needed to stand up to people drawing up regulations for workers in companies such as British Airways, which in 2006 barred one of its employees from wearing a cross.
Nadia Eweida, from Twickenham, south-west London, argued that the airline allowed Sikh employees to wear turbans and Muslims to wear hijabs, but she had been penalised for insisting on displaying her cross.
BA had not allowed Mrs Eweida, a Coptic Christian, to wear a cross because they decided it was not a “requirement” of her faith.
BA later amended its uniform policy but Mrs Eweida lost her case at the Court of Appeal and has lodged an application for it to be heard in the ECHR.
In a letter to The Sunday Telegraph in 2010, six prominent bishops and Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, condemned the treatment of “numerous” practising Christians who had been dismissed from their jobs for “unacceptable” reasons.
Commenting on the case of Shirley Chaplin, a nurse barred from wearing her cross in a hospital, they said the local NHS uniform policy permitted exemptions for “religious clothing” and that had been applied to people of other faiths.
Lord Carey and the bishops wrote: “Furthermore, Mrs Chaplin has been informed that the Court requires evidence of the fact that Christians wear crosses visibly around the neck.
“It cannot be right that judges are unaware of such a basic practice.”