The Parish Church of St. Michael Cornhill

Welcome from the Rector

The Revd Dr Peter Mullen BA PhD

For forty years and more there has been a largely uncontested assumption that modern man has outgrown religion. Bonhoeffer wrote of “man come of age” and many others talked excitedly of “the secular meaning of the Gospel” and even welcomed “the death of God”. In other words, it was long assumed that an historical process called “secularisation” was almost complete. Certainly, borrowing the jargon of Marxism, secularisation was deemed to be “inevitable”. It is a mark of just how much things have changed that you will find this view represented nowadays only in The Guardian and the BBC.

Religion is back in fashion. It has been drawn inescapably to our attention by militant Islam. There are two sorts of militants. There is the bomb-throwing sort and then the decent, honest, law-abiding zealot. In the Book of Common Prayer, Christians too are described as “militant”. And when being militant means not bomb-throwing but preaching, promoting, living and advertising the Christian faith, then we should all be militants. The answer to our current ills is not the wholesale condemnation of Islam but the recovery of our own historic faith.

Devout Muslims look at western society and they are sickened by what they see. They ask what we value and modern, secular, consumerist Britain answers by its deeds even more than its words:

“We have a multitude of consumer goods and a multiplicity of lifestyle choices and entertainments. We have the first and great commandment Wear a condom. And we have absolution in the form of abortion on demand – 200,000 every year”.

The devout Muslim replies, “What you call lifestyle choices are perversions; and your entertainments are decadent and pornographic”.

When we look at the decay of public life as seen any night of the week in our towns and cities, and when we review the lewd and voyeuristic mass entertainments on television, can we really deny the devout Muslim’s case against western society?

Faithlessness and decadence are nothing new – not even when you dress them up in the polite costume of “secularisation”. Our besetting problem in Britain is that we have neglected and turned away from the Christian faith. This neglect is all the worse for its having been perpetrated in the name of “enlightenment” and “progressive values”. There is nothing enlightened or progressive about them.

What we require is a return to the faith in its beauty and simplicity. I mean our duty to God and our duty to our neighbour. The Ten Commandments set this out in words that even the enlightened and the progressive could understand if he would for a moment set aside his hifalutin jabber about secularisation and its inevitability. Here it is plain and true:

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind and with all thy strength; and thy neighbour as thyself.

Peter Mullen – your Parish Priest & Rector

Home Welcome NEW BOOK: A History of St. Michael's Events - July 08 Sermons 2004 Sermons 2005 Sermons 2006 Sermons 2007 Sermons 2008 Music Restoration of the Organ Foundation Music Trust Books Recordings Contact us	Welcome from the Rector The Revd Dr Peter Mullen BA PhD For forty years and more there has been a largely uncontested assumption that modern man has outgrown religion. Bonhoeffer wrote of “man come of age” and many others talked excitedly of “the secular meaning of the Gospel” and even welcomed “the death of God”. In other words, it was long assumed that an historical process called “secularisation” was almost complete. Certainly, borrowing the jargon of Marxism, secularisation was deemed to be “inevitable”. It is a mark of just how much things have changed that you will find this view represented nowadays only in The Guardian and the BBC. Religion is back in fashion. It has been drawn inescapably to our attention by militant Islam. There are two sorts of militants. There is the bomb-throwing sort and then the decent, honest, law-abiding zealot. In the Book of Common Prayer, Christians too are described as “militant”. And when being militant means not bomb-throwing but preaching, promoting, living and advertising the Christian faith, then we should all be militants. The answer to our current ills is not the wholesale condemnation of Islam but the recovery of our own historic faith. Devout Muslims look at western society and they are sickened by what they see. They ask what we value and modern, secular, consumerist Britain answers by its deeds even more than its words: “We have a multitude of consumer goods and a multiplicity of lifestyle choices and entertainments. We have the first and great commandment Wear a condom. And we have absolution in the form of abortion on demand – 200,000 every year”. The devout Muslim replies, “What you call lifestyle choices are perversions; and your entertainments are decadent and pornographic”. When we look at the decay of public life as seen any night of the week in our towns and cities, and when we review the lewd and voyeuristic mass entertainments on television, can we really deny the devout Muslim’s case against western society? Faithlessness and decadence are nothing new – not even when you dress them up in the polite costume of “secularisation”. Our besetting problem in Britain is that we have neglected and turned away from the Christian faith. This neglect is all the worse for its having been perpetrated in the name of “enlightenment” and “progressive values”. There is nothing enlightened or progressive about them. What we require is a return to the faith in its beauty and simplicity. I mean our duty to God and our duty to our neighbour. The Ten Commandments set this out in words that even the enlightened and the progressive could understand if he would for a moment set aside his hifalutin jabber about secularisation and its inevitability. Here it is plain and true: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind and with all thy strength; and thy neighbour as thyself. Peter Mullen – your Parish Priest & Rector