Public Worship in England Today
The Christian act of public worship in the UK is now prohibited by law. 150 years after the disestablishment of the Church in Ireland, there is no longer an established Church in any part of the British Isles. Our forebears once died of plague in an effort to save the soul of sick people. But today the Churches are closed and ministers are reduced to joining the morass of voices on YouTube.
Meanwhile, another form of worship has been established. The deity is the NHS. Public worship takes place at 8 o’clock on a Thursday night, by making as much noise as possible in the doorways of homes, as an expression of gratitude / adoration for those who “serve” the NHS. These are our self-sacrificing priests. We also have our prognosticating prophets amongst the statisticians. No doubt those who refuse to render worship will soon be spotted, even as they were in the days of Daniel:
Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?
Daniel 3.15
This year also marks 200 years since the death of the revolting English madonna, Florence Nightingale. All that is believed about her is myth. She was a wicked woman, whose morals matched her anti-Christian principles. And yet her name is invoked over the new “hospital”. She is the goddess and sainted example for nurses, who are tired and yet trying to do their “duty”.
In the midst of much death and suffering, English children have been encouraged to put rainbows in the windows of houses. The rainbow is the symbol of God’s promise not to destroy the world once again with a massive flood. While the children may be enjoying using all the colours in their box and the parents are happy that the children are occupied, the religious significance remains: a mark of defiance against God, that he would not dare to judge us.
Tell the English that it is their duty to obey God’s commandments and they will tell you to grow up.
Tell the English that it is their duty to worship the Lord God Almighty and they will tell you they haven’t the time.
Tell the English to lead their children into humble acts of thanksgiving to God and they will accuse you of indoctrination.
And yet all these things they willingly do for the NHS.
The idol of the nation is clear, as are the judgments of the Lord.
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Psalm 130
8th April 2020
My local political representative has replaced Easter with the worship of man.
22nd April 2020
This video is denounced as cultural appropriation. Never mind the ridiculous hurrah for “Mankind”.
The strangeness continues. With the abolition of Christian worship has also come the abolition of Christian love. How can we love our neighbour as ourselves when we cannot be within reach of said neighbour? How can we put the needs of others first, when we cannot be near them?
The solution of the State is that if you are in trouble then send for the uniformed people who are allowed to be near others. But this is not the same.
Last week, a neighbour appealed to me for help. Specifically prayer. Her husband is in heart failure and his only medical support is a phone call once a week. Under the circumstances of the wife’s understandable distress and the husband’s pains, I did pray. I also asked my mother, a trained doctor, to call round to see these vulnerable neighbours. The response was unequivocal and violent: although the doctors were doing nothing to help, although no nurse was available to support, although going to the hospital is not an option and no GP is making house calls, my mother was sent away with a scream of anguish in case she brought death with her.
How can you love your neighbour as yourself, when your neighbour will not let you?
1st May 2020
The weekly “claque” against the Lord God Almighty becomes more marked by epistemological self-consciousness every week. The Prime Minister gave thanks to the NHS for the restoration of his health, forgetting that it is the Lord alone who strikes down and raises up. Having prayed in our family for his recovery, we thank the Lord for it, even as we long for the fear of the Lord in high places. Likewise, the Prime Minister’s partner has praised the NHS for the safe delivery of her first child, overlooking that it is a singular mercy in the hands of God alone.
Much has been made of the rainbows that appeared in multiple locations during the 8 o’clock claque last night. What a warning they paint and who will hear? Not the BBC reporter Dan Johnson, who this morning on national television referred the the medical staff as “miracle workers” and said that last night was an act of communion in the name of key workers.
Rejoice in the LORD, O ye righteous: for praise is comely for the upright.
Praise the LORD with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings.
Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise.
For the word of the LORD is right; and all his works are done in truth.
He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.
By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.
He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses.
Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.
The LORD bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect.
The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.
The LORD looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men.
From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth.
He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works.
There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength.
An horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.
Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy;
To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.
Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he is our help and our shield.
For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name.
Let thy mercy, O LORD, be upon us, according as we hope in thee.
Psalm 33
5th May 2020
You cannot “ban” singing God’s praises in Church, as Germany has done. No State has the right to usurp such control, to dictate to Christians what they should and should not do in the public worship of God. Granted, the situation in England is worse, as there are no public Churches - no sermons, no prayers, no praise. But to open the Churches in Germany with caveats and prohibitions is unspeakably blasphemous.
Praise is an imperative. It is non-negotiable. I do not speak of fragrant choruses that make the singer feel better, nor of the centuries-old hymns that make the congregation feel the warm glow of tradition on their backs, although both of those would be preferable to the interminable silence of once Christian nations neglecting such a sacred duty as singing God’s praises. We read in Psalm 50:
Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.
That is clear and unequivocal. The verse before removes any sentimentality surrounding the duty:
Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.
The once Christian nations of the West are under a siege of their own making, conquered by their own fear, going rapidly insane at the prospect of leaving the house. The latent idolatry has become overt and aggressive.
Decades ago, Rachel Carson foretold of a Silent Spring - by which she meant that environmental changes would damage the wildlife. And yet the birds are singing today and we are not.
8th May 2020
Today we celebrate the 75th Anniversary of VE Day and the “freedom” for which so many fought, by sitting in our prison cells, following orders. It is ironic, to say the very least.
I remember the 50th Anniversary. I was 9 going on 10 and had been selected for a special singing group. We spent most of the year preparing for our big concert. We sang the old chestnuts, We’ll Meet Again, There’ll Always be an England and the bizarre There’ll be Bluebirds over the White Cliffs of Dover. We also sang a number of songs that confused us greatly. I recall our teacher trying to explain the meaning of the song Why do you whisper, green grass? and he never even tried In the Mood. I was given the solo at the start of Moonlight Becomes You and I loved that because I’d heard Bing Crosby and Bob Hope perform it with Dorothy Lamour. Little Nicky was given the solo in Lili Marlene - Underneath the lampost by the garden gate … She hadn’t a hope and was shamed by an old cleaning woman, who belted it out like a prop forward on a stag night. Smutty, sentimental and pseudo-religious. We sang them all and didn’t understand a solitary thing about the Second World War.
But do the people sitting in their gardens this afternoon, drinking stereotypical tea, as bunting blows in the breeze and the old songs are belted out? Was that what it was all about? A war so everyone could be told to do the same things all the time, unthinking and never challenging the status quo?
My Grandfather had been taught in Church that to kill was a sin and so he, alongside his brother, registered as Conscientious Objectors in the Second World War. As a consequence, they were looked down on by everyone in the army. But they took it. One was given the task of digging latrines and graves; the other nursed on ships. In his later years, my Grandfather reconsidered what he had been taught. But even if he had been wrong, after the terrible treatment of Conscientious Objectors in the First World War, it took great courage to say no on point of principle, to stand before the Army and say that the law of Jesus Christ matters more than the law of England.
11th May 2020
Tomorrow is the bicentennial of the birth of Florence Nightingale. In her honour, the impromptu coronavirus “hospitals” across the UK are called Nightingale Hospitals. Her name has been invoked as a talisman of heroism in the medical profession today. The Bishop of London (a former nurse) made Nightingale the subject of her recent sermon:
The Bishop of London was wrong, grossly wrong, in treating Florence Nightingale as a Christian. Nightingale was a most vicious anti-Christian, as I explain in (heavily footnoted) detail in Creedless Christianity. Let a few quotes from Florence Nightingale suffice to show her true colours:
Is there anything higher in thinking of one’s own salvation than in thinking of one’s own dinner? … What shall I do to be saved? is generally the most selfish question.
To obey the perfect Father, the Almighty Wisdom is unintelligible. We try to co-operate, to second; we do not obey.
“[God] does not want to be praised, to be adored, to have his glory sung. We can scarcely conceive a good man, a very limited edition of God’s perfections, wishing it. How inappropriate, then, to Him all this praise!”
… at last there shall arise a woman, who will resume, in her own soul, all the sufferings of her race, and that woman will be the Saviour of her race. … The next Christ will perhaps be a female Christ.
The lies about Florence Nightingale are legion and obscene. The worship of her is (and always has been) a national disgrace. She was a curse and not a blessing. It says much about England that we remember so few of our truly worthy ancestors and always celebrate those that paved the road to our modern perdition.
3rd June 2020
The Church has effectively been abolished in England. Some ministers continue to wring their hands at their impotence, but would never consider holding a service! Unlike Daniel, they do not regard what God requires as paramount. Other ministers are bemoaning that they cannot provide the comfort and support that they usually give to their Church members, as though the primary object of the Church meeting is social support and not the public worship of God.
4th June 2020
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. (Joshua 24.15)
To whom do we kneel?
For whom would be die?
To whom do we owe our allegiance?
As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
16th June 2020
The Churches are opened for private prayer, as though that has not been the only option for Christians during the so-called lockdown. God’s worship is still never mentioned and when the Church buildings are finally allowed to reopen, will God be worshipped then? Or will the Church once more fulfil a subordinate role as care provider and a shoulder to cry on?
23rd June 2020
So Churches are “allowed” to worship the Lord God Almighty again from Saturday 4th July 2020, only people are not “allowed” to sing. Some of us never stopped and never will.
18th July 2020
The first in a series of articles has been published on The English Calvinist to make sense of the current situation.