Onward, Christian soldiers: the UK churches and the armed forces after the 'End of History'

There are six stained glass windows in the nave of the parish in which I minister. Five of the windows are dedicated to sons of the parish who died in the Great War. As I stand in the pulpit, to my right is the Roll of Honour of those of the parish who responded to the call of King and Country in 1914. Engraved crosses beside the names of the fifteen parishioners who fell in that conflict. On the cover for the font is a plaque holding the thirteen names of those from the parish who died in the Second World War. 

Each Remembrance Sunday, the names of fallen parishioners from both world wars are read. A poppy wreath is placed before the war memorial. Still silence is observed between the Last Post and Reveille.

Such is the case with very many parish churches across these Islands. Our churches prayerfully hold the memories of the fallen. Memorials in stained glass and stone are found in our churches. Mid-November is marked by the solemn rituals - communal and national - of Remembrance Sunday. The call to serve King and Country, the noble vocation of military service, and the memory of sacrifice are caught up with our parish churches.

This is an important aspect of the life of parish churches which should guide Anglicans - and other Christians with similar traditions - in the United Kingdom at this time, as a threatening European and global context requires increased defence expenditure, an expansion of the armed forces, and recognition that serious security threats need to be confronted.

Looking around our parish churches should remind us that this is nothing new for Anglicans and other Christian traditions. We have been a significant Christian presence in such times before, providing a moral and spiritual core for the country. We have ministered to our communities when very significant numbers were in arms, defending our country.

This heritage stands in stark contrast to a prevalent view in contemporary churches, where it is assumed that an implicit pacifism must be the default stance of Christians, an assumption based on the delusions of the comfortable West at the end of the 20th century, as we celebrated 'the End of History'; that rearmament must be opposed rather than affirmed by Christians as morally justified and necessary; and that service in the military, contrary to all the evidence in many of our parish churches, is to be viewed by Christians with suspicion. .

Rather than the progressive platitudes emerging from the illusory 'End of History', it is the heritage in our parish churches which should now guide the churches, in a time when greater numbers will be serving in the armed forces, when there are new threats to the Realm which must be faced, when the grave uncertainties of the European and international context make conflict much more likely than in past decades. 

The very fact that many parish churches materially - in stained glass, wood, and stone - commemorate those who responded to the call of King and Country, honour the sacrifice of the fallen, and recognise the virtue of the vocation to military service, is itself significant in these times. It is a physical reminder that the churches have the spiritual resources to guide and minister to communities and the nation in a time when military service and the need for arms to defend the realm will again be a significant part of cultural life.

In addition to a renewed appreciation for and understanding of this physical heritage, there are other significantly relevant aspects of the heritage of the churches in the United Kingdom regarding ministering to the country and the armed forces in times of threat and conflict. We have, over centuries, prayed for those in arms. From the pulpit, we have expounded the wisdom of just war teaching, grounding military action in Christian moral thought. And we have provided chaplains to minister to those in arms. 

Prayer for those serving our country in arms has been a constant feature of Anglican life throughout the centuries. Consider, for example, the Form of Prayer and Thanksgiving authorised for 5th December 1805, after the Battle of Trafalgar:

While we bear in our remembrance the skill and intrepidity of those who fight our battles, we confess that they are but instruments in Thy hands, and that Thou dost direct them according to the unsearchable Purposes of Thy will.

Likewise, the Form of Prayer and Thanksgiving for July 1815, after the victory at Waterloo, prayed for the continued advance of the Allied forces:

Bless, we beseech Thee, the Allied Armies, with Thy continued favor. Stretch forth Thy right hand to help and direct them. Let not the glory of their progress be stained by ambition, nor sullied by revenge: but let Thy holy Spirit support them in danger, control them in victory, and raise them above all temptation to evil, through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

This consistent practice was reflected in the Church of Ireland's Prayer Book revision of 1926, in which a petition was added to the Litany for the armed forces:

That is may please thee to bless and keep the forces of the King, and to shield them in all dangers and adversities ...

Such regular - and unembarrassed - prayer for the armed forces should now again be a feature of Anglican worship in the United Kingdom, recognising the greater numbers of those who will be serving in the armed forces over coming decades and the greater likelihood of them facing "dangers and adversities".

In addition to prayer for those in arms, it is also a time for a renewed confidence in the teaching of just war doctrine from the pulpit. If we are to seek an exemplar to encourage us in this, we might turn to the support given by the then Archbishop of York, William Temple, to rearmament in the 1930s and, as Archbishop of Canterbury, his 1944 declaration that he was "not only non-pacifist but anti-pacifist". Re-receiving the teaching of Article XXXVIII that "it is lawful [that is, just and right] for Christian men, at the commandment of the Magistrate, to wear weapons, and serve in the wars", we should confidently reassert the moral vision of just war doctrine, seeking to root military service, the defence of the Realm, and the legitimate use of military force in a Christian moral vision. 

This reflects the wisdom of the Christian tradition over many centuries, seeking to apply Christian teaching to the realities of life in a fallen world and our duties in the polity. Moreover, rather than being a politically-motivated compromise, or - worse - a clear rejection of New Testament teaching, just war doctrine, as Nigel Biggar states in his excellent In Defence of War (2013), is a significantly more faithful response to the Scriptures than pacifism:

It is not only possible, but preferable; for the doctrine of just war can make better sense than pacifism of all that the New Testament text does and does not say.

Then there is the ministry of military chaplains. Again over centuries, Anglican and other churches in these Islands have provided chaplains to minister to those in arms, both in times of peace and war. Generations of chaplains have provided pastoral care to those in the military with the realities of death, sacrifice, and conflict, and ministered prayer, scripture, and sacrament on the battlefield. As Bishop Philip North has said, "We have a lot to learn from our extraordinary armed-forces chap­­­­­­lains, whose work is too often forgotten by the wider Church". 

Anglican and other churches in the United Kingdom should now be committing to provide chaplains for the Regular, Reserve, and Cadet forces, recognising that the planned expansion of the armed forces will require an increased number of chaplains. This will require planning, investment, and - above all - theological and pastoral commitment, not least in a time of falling clergy numbers. In a secular culture woefully incapable of providing the spiritual and philosophical resources to guide, form, and sustain those serving in the military vocation, such a commitment is both necessary from the churches and an opportunity to demonstrate the spiritual and philosophical resonance of Christianity.

A new pride in and appreciation for the material culture in our parish churches honouring military service; regular and unembarrassed prayer for the armed forces; confident teaching of just war doctrine, providing a Christian moral core for military service and national defence; and a commitment to providing chaplains to serve in expanded armed forces - such should be the response of Anglican and other churches in the United Kingdom to the changed international context and the necessary increase in defence expenditure. 

To aid this, it might be useful if, across the churches in the United Kingdom, a network of like-minded Christians emerged: 'Christians for the Defence of the Realm'. Such a network could become a focus for encouraging a just war understanding of necessary rearmament; of invoking the rich and proud heritage of churches honouring military service; of supporting the work of military chaplains; and of challenging pacifist assumptions in the life and witness of the churches.

The alternative is shaped by what Gerry Lynch has termed "Fukayama eschatology", reflected in much contemporary Christian public discourse and no less worthy of robust moral criticism than pacifist opposition to British rearmament in the 1930s. The ecclesiastical progressive assumptions and accompanying implicit pacifism - for who needs armed forces at 'the End of History'? - to which this gives rise now stand exposed as the luxury beliefs of those unwilling to discern the signs of the times. Such foolish luxury beliefs are very far removed from the heritage and tradition of British Christianity, a heritage and tradition which should now be reclaimed by Anglican and other churches in the United Kingdom and applied to the new and serious challenges now faced by our country and its armed forces.