Not in church
Our religious affairs correspondent, Dr Martin Sullivan, the Dean of St Paul's, is to be congratulated for refusing to allow the Archbishop of Canterbury to proceed with a service on behalf of the European Development Movement. Dr Sullivan asked for changes in what was clearly an undesirably ideologically motivated service — saying, inter alia, that the proposed form was "unwieldy and not up to the required high standard" — and, when these were refused, he withdrew permission for the use of St Paul's. The Dean has struck an important blow for the purity of Christianity.
The service was to have been held as part of Europe for the Third World' week. From its predecessors, which have taken place in different parts of the country, it is apparent that it represents one of the most influential strands of modernised religion, replacing, as it does, religious with economic affirmations in the prayers and litany, and because it expresses a religious commitment to a specifically economic and political philosophy. Like the Catholic bishops of the dioceses of Leeds, whose pastoral letter on the subject was read last weekend, the "Europe for the Third World' organisers seek to bring religious pressure to bear on such political matters as trade negotiations and aid programmes. This is quite inadmissible, not merely because of the growing volume of intelligent commentary which argues that the liberal position on these matters — best expressed in the Pearson report — actually encourages a counterproductive policy, but also because the whole matter is quite outside the sphere of ignorant churchmen and their lay lackeys. Let churches be used for teaching the word of God, and churchmen confine themselves to their ministry.
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