St George's Day: dialogue, not debate
Date Posted: Apr 23, 2026.
Reflection for St George’s Day
The Right Reverend Rob Wickham, CUF Chief Executive
One of the most fascinating aspects of the study of human geography is that of perceptual and humanistic geography. This takes the form of mental mapping and understanding a sense of place. It recognizes that different individuals will engage with different places in different ways, shaped by age, ethnicity, income, story, personality, social mobility and so much more. It makes clear that a sense of place is complex, in many ways individualistic, but also with the ability to shape the experience more broadly into neighbourhood and nation.
People shape places, yet places also shape people. That’s why planning, provision and the personal, alongside prayer and prophecy all matter in the business of shaping our communities as God intends them to be.
Walter Brueggerman in his book ‘The Land’ studies the scriptures and emphasises the moments where the Bible speaks about people and places and their interaction. It’s a profound reflection that cries out: place matters, people matter and God’s interaction between the two matters.
Ultimately, for the Christian narrative, there is a rootedness in incarnation where God pitched his tent amongst us and redemption in the universal claim that Jesus’s cross and resurrection enables salvation and the possibility of a lifelong relationship with God, in forgiveness. The story also points to Pentecost where we are all sent out to live this good news in the places where we are. In other words, the Gospel story celebrates that place matters, the universal matters, and then place matters again, yet changed in the Spirit of God. There is a confidence of building community in place because of God’s unconditional love for it. This, for me, is the heart of mission.
So, what of Englishness as we come to commemorate St George?
The stories of the saints are important for us. We know St George never set foot in England, but, on one level, so what? The saints speak and minister of God’s confident interaction, in the Spirit, between people and places. We might mention St Pancras, St Alban, St Cuthbert, St Cedd, all of whom have shaped this interaction.
The saints are the big names, but also the everyday. Everyday people, faithfully serving their local neighbourhoods, as God serves through them. It is just as much Gladys who washes the sheets for the night shelter, or Derek who looks after the finances of the foodbank or Mash who brings a packet of biscuits to the Place of Welcome each week, than the Premier Division saints like St George.
I remember vividly, as the Vicar of Somers Town within Camden and King’s Cross, a visit from a previous bishop of London to the site of St Pancras Station as it was being transformed into St Pancras International. The developers were enthusiastic about their work of the transformation of the built environment, and its impact upon the local community. But Bishop Richard recognised the gap. ‘This is all very well’, he said, ‘but can I remind you, we have been here for over 1,600 years and we know this community much better than you do, how shall we work together to make it even better?’ This made reference to a nearby church, St Pancras Old Church, which had been shaping community for that time. Roman tiles appear in its stonework. This intervention was a game changer.
As we come to commemorate St George’s Day, we give thanks to God for England, its places, its people and their interaction in the spirit. As Professor Luke Bretherton, Regius Professor of Divinity in Oxford, reminded us in a recent webinar, this is a gentle negotiation, which aims to seek the welfare of everyone, which recognises the importance of each individual’s stories, and works for the common good not the self. It is not rooted in conspiracy, disinformation and a hatred for the unknown or the other. Any such narrative that demonises particular cultures and creed (as we have seen most recently in the rise of targeted antisemitic attacks) is demonstrating a most ‘un-English’ imposition. England is not to be defended as a Christian nation, rather a nation where God is recognised as shaping the interaction between people and place for the common good.
'But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. 8 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let the prophets and the diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, 9 for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, says the Lord.'
Jeremiah 29:7-9
At a reception in Number 10 for St George’s Day this week, the Prime Minister spoke of the English culture. He spoke of the greatness of England laying in this vision of neighbourhoods who looked out for one another. Of people who lived out the principles of (to use his words) service, sacrifice and respect. This is what we, at CUF, seek to encourage. An approach that understands the neighbourhood and its people. That seeks the Missio Dei, where God is at work, and who continues to pitch his tent amongst us. That recognises that the local matters, that assets matter, and that in this we find relational abundance. That there is no place for demonising or racism, but a need for a gentle negotiation that involves; dialogue, not debate, relationships, not othering and a posture of discipleship and lifelong learning, not arrogance.
Happy St George’s Day
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