The Saturday the United Kingdom saw the largest patriotic march in its history with estimates ranging from 100-600 thousand attendees marching through its capital London waving its national flags. The people marched under the banner to “Unite the Kingdom”, and it was billed as a free speech festival though this did not feature prominently in the rhetoric from the stage. There were a lot of speakers from around the world who urged the crowd not to forget that Christianity was the foundation upon which the country was built. There were many others who warned that not only Britain, but all European countries could not culturally survive mass immigration of peoples from Islamic countries. It was telling that old conflicts were put to one side, the crowd were addressed in French by a French nationalist, and a speaker unfurled the Irish Tricolour on stage embossed with the words of the proclamation of the Irish republic; their messages were the same – we  need to put past differences behind us because we face a common threat—that of the Islamification of our lands. A Christian church group from New Zealand performed the Haka before ritually tearing up flags one marked with Secular Humanism and the other a Muslim Brotherhood flag to pronounce their power broken in the United Kingdom. The message was clear as a people in the United Kingdom we’d turned from God to an atheistic secular humanism and in doing so beckoned the Islamification of these isles, and that the solution was to repent, turn back to God, and stop importing the enemies of Christ, the followers of Muhammad, into our lands. A rape survivor from a Muslim child rape gang spoke of her harrowing experience on stage and how Muslim Labour councillors conspired with police to allow her attackers off. This brave woman didn’t back down however but fought to see her attacker behind bars who was eventually given a 37-year sentence for his crime. Her message was clear we can’t let the establishment who did this remain in place, they must be removed from office and justice must be brought for the victims. Hundreds of thousands stood for a minute’s silence to honour Charlie Kirk hailed as a Christian Martyr after watching a pro-life tribute to Charlie Kirk. The tribute was made of videos of Charlie and his family with a voice over of Charlie speaking about how we don’t have a right to murder someone because of their age as every human is made in the image of God. The rally began with the singing of protest and Christian worship songs, followed by the crowd uniting in the Lord’s Prayer, and ended with singing Jerusalem. 

It is without a doubt that the organisers wanted to put Christianity front and centre, but this was not a rally of bible believing, church going Christians. One speaker spoke of remembering singing hymns at school and how it gave them a sense of common identity. Whilst another speaker objected and made quite clear she didn’t care what people believed or how they lived as long as they don’t shove their religion down my children’s throats. This was a rally where many attendees would have seen themselves as culturally Christian, but not be able to tell you the gospel, let alone be in agreement with Christian ethics on things like marriage, sexuality, and abortion. It was a rally full of people who had a sense that something had gone deeply wrong in our society and were happy to accept it had something to do with the erosion of cultural Christianity, but who hadn’t considered it might have something to do with them and their personal rejection of God and his ways. It is quite telling that at a rally where Christianity was platformed so clearly with organisers buying wooden crosses for people to march with that the main chant was “Keir Starmer is a w*nk*r”, and that many of the speeches were laden with expletives. The rally then didn’t mark a return to Christianity but rather a new openness to hear what Christianity might have to say.

It grieves me deeply therefore that the response of the Diocese of London showed nothing but contempt for the Unite the Kingdom attendees and speakers saying they were “at odds with everything we, and millions of Londoners, stand for, especially the Diocese of London” suggesting that they were motivated by “racial intolerance” and a desire to “deepen fear”. It is as if the Diocese of London has sought to put a “patriots not welcome here” sign outside of every one of their churches; it is deeply offensive and contrary to the gospel which is for all. In addition to my deep grief that the marchers will have heard they’re not welcome in Anglican churches is that this was a missed opportunity for the Church to actually give a unifying message. What the Church seems to have missed is that marchers weren’t racists; people of all colours stood together and the worship was led by gospel singers, yes, the attendees were predominantly white but so is England, and when they stopped for lunch they to the confusion of their critics stopped to enjoy London’s diverse street food scene. Interview after interview of marchers saw people speaking about fairness. It was unfair they said that people could come here and get a council house, and receive benefits, when neither they nor their family had paid into the system a day in their lives. It was unfair they said that while veterans slept rough on the streets men who’d spent thousands to enter the country illegally on rubber dinghies were put up in nice hotels. Surely, the higher ups in the Church of England can see they have a point? The Diocese of London could have put out a statement calling for an overhaul of the current system so that the impression that asylum seekers are given a better deal then people’s fellow countryman no longer remains. They could have challenged the feasibility of calls for mass remigration on the basis that as Christians we are people of our word and so if as a nation we have said to people you can stay permanently, we can’t then revoke that. They could have praised the marchers for recognising the countries Christian roots and invited them to church. They could have warned them that if they wanted to wave a Christian flag they should put away “obscenity, foolish talk, [and] coarse joking” (Eph. 5:4) and be ready to embrace those of “every tribe, tongue, and nation” (Rev. 5:9) as their new brothers and sisters in Christ and to care for them as their own. The Church could have called for people to dialogue across political differences and not to simply demonise those who oppose migration as racists, nor those who hold “welcome refugees” signs as part of a globalist plot to undermine the west. The Church could have said they wanted to take the lead on uniting the kingdom and so would encourage Diocese across the country to hold “Unite the Kingdom” events where people spoke of what it meant for them to be British, or English, Scottish, Welsh, or (northern) Irish and used those events as an opportunity to preach the gospel. The Church of England could have turned down the dial on the tensions in the United Kingdom but instead they’ve added fuel to the fire. While it is true the Church of England missed an opportunity to unite the kingdom, it is not too late. My heartfelt plea to the Bishops and senior leaders is that they’d recognise this, change course, and embrace the opportunity to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ, for until he returns now will always be the time to preach the gospel, be peacemakers, and Jesus’ witnesses here on earth.