Episode details

Radio 4,2 mins
'We are not just fellow citizens we are from a Christian point of view made in the Divine image'. Bishop Richard Harries
Thought for the DayAvailable for over a year
Good morning. Now the result is clear our emotions this morning will be strongly contrasting. Hugely excited and exhilarated, or appalled and deeply depressed. However we are feeling the change is seismic with huge implications for every country in the UK. For, as one headline put it yesterday “Who do we want to be?”, and this involves not just our national identity but our core identity as a human person. As we enter this period of great turbulence that will underlie much of what we decide. One of the advances in recent years is the realisation that we have multiple identities. For example I regard myself as Welsh by nationality, British by citizenship, European by culture and Christian by religion. It all goes to make up who I am. The problem with all identities, however, is that they are potentially divisive. If I am English, I am not French, if I am Christian I am not Muslim, and so on. And as we know so well this divisiveness can lead to war between nations, violence between football crowds and foul abuse on social media. At a time like this with such complex negotiations and decisions ahead times, I think we need to look for forms of identity which include others, rather than exclude them, which bind us together, however much we might disagree with them. However we voted on the referendum we are all British Citizens. Whatever our views on the European Union we continue to be heirs of European culture. Although religion has too often been deeply divisive I believe that properly understood it should be a binding factor across all other divisions. This is because religion is about where our ultimate loyalty lies, and what is ultimate cannot and should not be identified with anything that is finite and limited. When that happens we have idolatry. Idolatry is not so much about worshipping statues as making what is less than ultimate the most important thing in life, and this might be a nation but it might be a political cause or a political party, a religious ideology or even a football team. From that wider perspective we can begin to see even those with whom we strongly disagree as with us and not against us. We are not just fellow citizens we are from a Christian point of view made in the Divine image and called to grow into the Divine likeness. We are now at the beginning of a period of great uncertainty with all kinds of potential dangers, and opportunities, ahead. We are like a ship that has suddenly hit a major storm and everything is being thrown around. Whatever way we voted, and whatever feelings our feelings now, we have to find a way through together, as we are all, in one way or another, part of the crew not just passengers. First broadcast 24 June 2016
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