By Emmanuel Etchells-Ayre – United Kingdom on March 30, 2011

I am old enough to recall when schools had morning prayers, and religious instruction, When Churches held an annual Whitsunday walk about, where each would walk the boundary of their individual parish, and arrange to meet up with other churches for joint prayers and services at certain points along the boundary.

These walks have been or were at one time a mainstay of the Churches evangelical work as they were a witness and a testimony to God and His Christ, during these walks others would tag along as and when the mood took them, everyone would have a new outfit, women and girls would have home made mainly hand sown dresses , the men would have their best suit (usually their wedding suit if they were married) and wear a Bowler Hat, or a Flat Cap, each Church had it’s individual Banner carried between six men two holding the poles it was attached to, and four who would hold on to the guy cords to prevent any wind dragging it in any direction (The wind bloweth where it listeth).

Following behind this huge Banner, would be the individual sections in which the Church held sway, the Women’s Sunday School, Children’s Sunday School etc: each with their own Banner many of which were hand embroidered by the women and young girls. The men would likewise have their own section with it’s Banner, as would the Boys Brigade and Scouts along with the Girl Guides and Brownies.

Each Church was given permission to hold their march on that day, and they were usually shepherded by perhaps two or three Police Officers for road safety, and in the extremely rare event that some unbeliever might cause a fracas.

These fantastic displays of Faith have now ceased to occur, WHY ? Political Correctness of course, one cannot allow the established faith of Christianity to offend minority groups , whose faiths do not openly flaunt their beliefs, oh no SIR , that cannot and will not be allowed, and it is the authors firm belief that it is due to the following reasons that Church membership has declined so dramatically :-

A) Removal of Godly prayers and worship in schools.

B) Denial of the God given right to worship and praise in public.

C) Fear of local authorities of offending minority groups.

D) Fear of the Police that should such a walk be organized and  enacted , there will be violent protestations from minority groups.

E) The reticence and in many cases cowardice of the Churches themselves to stand up and be counted.

F) The interference of Brussels and the British Parliament in the inalienable right of every Christian to openly practice and display his faith for all to see.

All this has led to the people as a whole (other than minority groups ) being drowned in a sea of petty and restrictive legislation, which has now cowed the spirit of enjoyment among believers in general.

Alas such occasions will never again occur because of the six listed above.

Whit Walks were an open celebration of the Christians Faith in God, and were frequently accompanied by a Brass Band, the little Independent Methodist Chapel I attended many years ago had no band, but we had Guitars and accompanied the singing with these. (We were very advanced for our time!)

I will close this missive with this remark from a Muslim with whom I was acquainted back then, he said that those who were saying that such things were oppressive towards Muslims,Sikhs and other faiths were building the wall of racial and religious bigotry, he claimed that such things did not offend him or those whom he knew, back then of course, we did not have Radical Islam, and all the Muslims and other religious faiths got along without any hassle at all, it has only come about and been caused by the sneaking political correctness as a form of appeasement that was never demanded nor was it needed.

No doubt there were as the years passed, little whispers in the ears of the powers that be, that it might be better to protect other faiths by preventing Christians from doing what they do best, which in turn led to the petty laws and restrictions of Brussels where it all began way back in the 1960′s and has eventually taken over to the extent that Christians are now all but totally forbidden to preach Christ Crucified on street corners and in public parks as they once did without a license, now they must be licensed, and can only preach where they are told to preach ( Their Patch so to speak ) and they are under constraints that mean they cannot speak against any sector of society, i.e. Gays, et cetera.

ENGLAND NEEDS A LIFE LINE .