Whose Flag Are You Flying?

Title: Whose flag are you flying?

Text: Jeremiah 29

Church and culture series – part 1

Introduction

Canadian immigration is rising … we are a desirable country!

O. & A. received their “PR” notice this week! ...People are arriving from Ukraine and other places!

• Loss of life in the Mediterranean Sea again this week (migrants from Africa)

• Illegal immigrants are being smuggled into USA on its southern border.

• Canada is in many ways - “the promised land”

When it comes to ultimate allegiance … There arises a question of patriotism and allegiance.

• There is a long history of the relationship between church and state and citizenship.

Roman empire –

Emperor Constantine… declared Roman Empire to be officially Christian. (4th Century)

The Church in France - The French Revolution and the church

Historian John McManners argues "in eighteenth-century France, throne and altar were commonly spoken of as in close alliance; their simultaneous collapse ... would one day provide the final proof of their interdependence."

After a century of persecution, some French Protestants actively supported an anti-Catholic regime, a resentment fuelled by Enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, considered a philosophical founder of the revolution, wrote it was "manifestly contrary to the law of nature... that a handful of people should gorge themselves with superfluities while the hungry multitude goes in want of necessities."

The Revolution caused a massive shift of power from the Catholic Church to the state;

although the extent of religious belief has been questioned, elimination of tolerance for religious minorities meant by 1789 being French also meant being Catholic.

The church was the largest individual landowner in France, controlling nearly 10% of all estates and levied tithes, effectively a 10% tax on income, collected from peasant farmers in the form of crops.

In return, it provided a minimal level of social support.

The August decrees abolished tithes, and on 2 November the Assembly confiscated all church property, the value of which was used to back a new paper currency known as assignats.

In return, the state assumed responsibilities such as paying the clergy and caring for the poor, the sick and the orphaned.

On 13 February 1790, religious orders and monasteries were dissolved, while monks and nuns were encouraged to return to private life.

The Civil Constitution of the Clergy of 12 July 1790 made them employees of the state, as well as establishing rates of pay and a system for electing priests and bishops. Pope Pius VI and many French Catholics objected to this since it denied the authority of the Pope over the French Church. In October, thirty bishops wrote a declaration denouncing the law, further fuelling opposition.

When clergy were required to swear loyalty to the Civil Constitution in November 1790, it split the church between the 24% who complied, and the majority who refused.

This stiffened popular resistance against state interference, especially in traditionally Catholic areas such as Normandy, Brittany and the Vendée, where only a few priests took the oath and the civilian population turned against the revolution. The result was state-led persecution of "Refractory clergy", many of whom were forced into exile, deported, or executed.

Interestingly…The French currently (2023) celebrate…

• Easter Monday,

• Ascension Day,

• Pentecost Monday,

• the Assumption of the Virgin Mary,

• All Saint’s Day, and

• Christmas.

Those days off could be replaced, Piolle said, by days to commemorate key moments in French history.

Recently, after the Pentecost Monday holiday, the mayor of Grenoble, France, sparked controversy when he argued French society has evolved beyond religious days off. Pointing to the large number of secular people who don’t follow the church calendar and Muslims who celebrate different religious days, Éric Piolle proposed removing Christian holidays from the civic calendar.

Church In UK – Coronation Of King Charles (2023)

• “Guardian of the faith”

• “Anointed” – behind a screen.

• As monarch, King Charles is not only the head of state for the UK but also the Defender of the Faith & the Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

When he was crowned in Westminster Abbey, he was anointed with holy oil by the Archbishop of Canterbury

While the choir sings “Zadok the Priest,” an anthem used in every coronation since 973 that draws on the anointing of Solomon by the priest Zadok in 1 Kings.

“It is the coronation more than any other event that underlines the sacred nature of the United Kingdom monarchy,” writes Bradley in his book God Save the King: The Sacred Nature of Monarchy.

“At their coronations kings and queens are not simply crowned and enthroned but consecrated, set apart and anointed, dedicated to God and invested with sacerdotal garb and symbolic regalia. Here, if anywhere, we find the divinity which hedges the throne.”

The Church in Germany…