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Aims |
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There are several
reasons why people are turning away from the Church. Some have what they think
are better, more interesting things to do. Some dislike what they see as a
stuffy, hierarchical institution, out of touch with the modern world. Others
are turned off by the way it seems to have rejected its own morality and
traditions or by an ‘un-English’ exuberance in worship styles. Many people
who think more deeply about core doctrines find they cannot accept them. In
any event, most younger people have not been brought up in Church-going
families and so have no connection or familiarity with it. Others find a more
spiritual path in non-Christian religions. At the same time, there
has been an awakening of our indigenous pre-Christian religion, whether
called Odinism, Asatru, Fyrnsidu, Germanic Heathenry or some other name. This is a faith of
the old Germanic Gods and Goddesses; Odin, Tyr, Thor, Yng Frey, Frig, Freya
and more. It is a religion governed by fate and destiny, or Wyrd as our
ancestors called it. It is an animistic religion that sees spirit in all
things, other worldly beings and which reveres our ancestors. It is also a
warrior religion rooted in the heroic culture of honour and loyalty of the
Germanic peoples who included the Anglo Saxons and Scandinavian Vikings. Some
people attracted by this tradition view Christianity as weak, cosmopolitan
and alien – a religion of the desert rather than the temperate forests of the
north. But I don’t
agree with this view, even if it may seem the case on initial comparison.
From its beginnings, English Christianity was influenced by the Saxon
‘heroic’ culture and folk traditions, a fusion that led to what is sometimes
called Saxon Christianity. These informal folk traditions were either
integrated into the formal religion of the Church or existed side by side
with it. They are what gave English Christianity a distinct local flavour and
to this day are an expression of English spiritual and cultural identity. It is what has shaped the modern English people for most of our
recorded history and I for one don’t want to simply
discard this. However, the medieval
fusion of Christianity with the Saxon heroic and folk culture was not always
a happy one. The Church was keen to discard anything from the old religion
that might contradict its own teachings and, in particular,
banned or literally demonized the old gods and goddesses as well as
the spirits of the land. Ideas central to the old religion were often
misunderstood or deliberately mis-represented. It led to an overemphasis on
the consequences of sin, an extreme view of hell and a suspicion of women
that was misogynistic. It replaced any proper understanding of fate (or Wyrd
as it was called) with the rather crude doctrines of Original Sin. On the
other hand, it inherited traits from the old religion that we would not these
days consider to be positive. It could be deeply superstitious and
fatalistic, leading to a rather melancholic culture. Recreating the medieval
Anglo Saxon Church has never been my goal. What I would like to
achieve with this web site, then, is to promote a modern form of Saxon
Christianity that includes a more positive fusion of formal Christianity, our
pre-Christian religion and English Folk Christian beliefs and practices. This
is a form of Christianity that celebrates the myths, stories and some of the
customs and beliefs of our pre-Christian forebears as a sort of Saxon Old
Testament or ‘Praeparatio Evangelica’ (Preparation
for the Gospel) as outlined by the Church father Eusebius of Caesarea. I hope
to examine some of the key elements of our pre-Christian Saxon religion, not in an attempt to recreate them as such (others are doing
that), but to help refine some of the principles of Saxon Christianity in a
way that is relevant to our modern world. I call this project
‘English Folk Church’. A Folk Church is a people’s
Church, rooted in the culture and traditions of a particular people. It is
intended to be less dogmatic than most mainstream Church denominations and it
is hoped that it will be of interest to people seeking to connect more with
their Anglo Saxon English origins, even those who
are attracted by our pre-Christian religion, but who wish to remain broadly
Christian. It may even be labelled as a form of Christo-Paganism and I hope
its ideas and ethos can contribute to the development of a wider English and
indeed European folk faith. It is something that could be observed by
individuals either as sole practioners or within existing Church
denominations, especially the Church of England. It may even form the basis
of a new denomination. I certainly hope that it will lead to interested
people finding each other and starting small study and social groups that can
grow into something bigger over time. |
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