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St Andrew: our national patron

Sermon delivered by the Rev John Gannon, Parish Priest at St Albert’s RC Church, Pollokshields, at Glasgow Churches Together's St Andrew's Day service in Sherbrooke St Gilbert’s Church of Scotland, Pollokshields, on November 30, 2004.

It is a great honour tonight to play a part in the celebrating of the feast day of our National Patron, St. Andrew. Our 'National Patron'. It’s only two words, and yet there is so much in them that can make people uncomfortable nowadays.

National, for a start. Many people today have an uneasy relationship with concepts such as patriotism and national loyalty. I have a certain sympathy for these feelings. My nationality is only one of the ways in which I would define myself, and it is by no stretch of the imagination the most important one, but it does have an importance, and ultimately it’s not to do with soil or territory or even birth: it’s about people, it’s about having an affinity and a commitment to the community in which we live.

Cardinal Winning, in a speech a few years ago in Brussels which was very well received – there was the odd one that went down well – pointed out that to have a love for your country, whether it is called Nationalism or patriotism or whatever, need not be a negative thing, as it often is even in parts of Europe, but instead could be a real source of pride and positive energy motivating a people to work together for the common good.

I would hope that we have left far, far behind us notions like “my country, right or wrong”, but I would also hope that we still take seriously the idea that we have a duty to do the best for our country, to make sure that the values by which our country lives and operates are the most noble and most life affirming values that they can be.

And that, of course takes us on to the second awkward word: Patron – our national patron, Patron Saint, that is.

As we celebrate tonight the apostle Andrew, we are inescapably reminded of the long Christian roots of our country. This is a fact that embarrasses many, they seem to think that by acknowledging the long Christian heritage of Scotland, and indeed Europe, we are somehow committing an offence against multiculturalism and pluralism, and it is now often seen as the politically correct thing to do to expunge from the collective consciousness any recognition or acknowledgement of the debt European culture and society owes to the Christian Faith. But this is a matter of history, and it should not be re-written, or its influence undone. As William Faulkner once said, “the Past is not dead, it is not even Past”

The French MEP Philippe de Villiers recently coined the term Christophobic to describe certain trends that are becoming increasingly prominent in European politics and media, which he felt was a more or less explicit attempt to drive Christian thought and values from the public arena. But in fact, it is not even Christianity that is the problem for these people. It is faith itself that is the problem. They see no place for people to bring their faith into public life, and they seek to reduce religious faith to the level of a private hobby.

The irony is that we are the true multiculturalists and pluralists, because it is we who are seeking to defend the right and freedom of all peoples, not just Christians, to live and publicly express their faith.

The feast of St. Andrew, although originating as a specifically Christian feast, is also an opportunity for us to widen that perspective, to ensure that the freedoms we demand for ourselves are also shared by others, no matter their faith, or lack of it, and in that way we can unite around this day and make this a day for all people of Scotland.

Cardinal Ratzinger, in an interview in La Repubblica a couple of weeks ago, spoke about this very issue of freedom when he warned that secularism was no longer a neutral influence which opened up space for religious freedom, Instead, he said “it is being transformed into an ideology which is imposed through politics and does not give public space to the Christian vision, which runs the risk of becoming something purely private, and thus disfigured”, he goes on to say “we must defend religious freedom against the imposition of an ideology which is presented as if it were the only voice of rationality, when it is only the expression of a ‘particular’ rationalism.

We have no need to be apologetic for the values we hold, or for seeking to bring those values into our public lives, true secularism and pluralism affirms that we have as much right as anyone else to do that. We should only apologise for the many times when we fail to live up to those values, or when we fail to defend them.

The theme of tonight’s service is “Praying for the country” We do not pray for our country as passive observers, whose faith in God pushes us to the margins of society. We pray for our country in a real and active way, recognising that true prayer is always a call to action. Prayer cannot be seen as an excuse not to be actively involved. Instead, our prayer for our country is a prayer for ourselves, and for all who live here, that we make this country all that it can be. And as people of faith, it is our duty, and we should not be ashamed or embarrassed about it, to proclaim publicly and loudly our belief that no society can prosper, that does not have God at its heart.