Religion: The Churches & Egypt

Religion in Britain often appears subdued and on the decline. Yet the Eden government’s intervention in Egypt roused Britain’s churches to life and protest as no British government’s action since the Boer War. Most of the Protestant clergy —both Established church and nonconformist—took their cue from the Archbishop of Canterbury (“Christian opinion … is terribly uneasy and unhappy”). Said the Anglican Bishop of Chichester: “Britain has stood alone in the world before because she upheld moral principles at great cost to herself. But she stands almost alone today because she has acted in direct violation of the moral and legal principles to which she pledged herself.”

“Christian people, stop the war,” proclaimed a banner at a Free Church Federal Council protest rally in Nottingham. A delegation of British church leaders called at 10 Downing Street, voiced the “deep concern of Christian opinion,” and urged a cease-fire (Anthony Eden was too busy to see them). Dr. Donald Soper, fire-eating British Methodist leader who urged refusal to fight, led a protest march through London’s West End. Anglican Father Trevor Huddleston, famed for his fight against apartheid in South Africa, called for even stronger condemnation by the churches: “Unless this is done, once again it will be clearly shown that principlcs of power politics count for more than justice, and that Western European civilization has forever forsaken the Christian gospel upon which it was founded.”

But there were some dissenting voices. Said the Archbishop of York, second ranking prelate in the Church of England: ”The policy of the government, no less than the policy of the opposition, can be supported with Christian convictions.” Said the Archdeacon of Bath: “If some one over a number of years pinches me and kicks me and bruises me, is it any wonder that I land out and hit him down?”