Articles - From the Vicar

During the Jewish Passover meal, the Seder, the youngest child at the table asks four questions that enable the story of the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt to be told. In this way the memory of the formative event in the history of the Jewish people is preserved for future generations. The Eucharistic Prayer fulfils a similar function for Christians. The whole of God’s plan of salvation for humankind, culminating in the death and resurrection of Jesus, is set out in a prayer that places the particular historical events of our faith in a context of praise and thanksgiving. Thus Jews and Christians are continuously formed and re-formed by both hearing and becoming part of the history that has made us who we are as individuals and communities. And what is true for religious communities is surely true for other communities too, be they villages or a nations.

There are those, however, whose view of the importance of history and historians is rather different. The Education Secretary, Charles Clarke, is one such. For instance he is quoted as having said: “I don't mind there being some medievalists around for ornamental purposes, but there is no reason for the state to pay for them.” No room for history, it seems, in Mr Clarke’s education worldview where the primary function of universities is to make “better progress in harnessing our knowledge to the process of creating wealth”.

Even if I had no religious belief I would reckon this to be a depressingly materialist stance. As a Christian I find Mr Clarke’s views about history utterly at odds, both with my membership of a community of saints that extends across time and space and with my faith in a God whose loving purposes have shaped, and continue to shape, the history of his people.

© St Edmund's Church, Roundhay