Rulers come and go
- 2016-06-20
- By ReimaginingEurope
- Posted in Jāna Jēruma-Grīnberga, Postcard from...
Just a few days remain until the referendum; on the whole, the view here from the Baltics is still one of bemusement.
It seems perverse to most people here, in countries which have fought to achieve their right to belong to Europe, that anyone would deliberately choose to turn away from all that membership of the European Union brings in benefits – economic, political, cultural and philosophical.
Not long ago, my husband and I had the privilege of visiting Bulgaria. All countries in Europe have histories, many of them complex and painful; but Bulgaria’s legacy of history and culture is among the richest and most astonishing. In fact, at the very heart of Sofia lies ancient Serdica, which came close to being the capital of Constantine’s Roman Empire, instead of Byzantium.
In modern Sofia, there are still clear traces of ancient Thrace, Rome, Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire, the Bulgarian national revival, the Soviet era – all brought together in the vibrant and self-confident city of today. Looking at the clearly very mixed origins of passers-by in Sofia, it is obvious that there are many cultural strands that are woven together; but also that a distinct identity has been created from the weaving process. In our hotel, we found a magazine with a brief introduction to Bulgaria, which said something like this: Over the centuries invaders have come and gone. Rulers have come and gone; but the people remain.
In today’s complex political situation, overlaid with anxiety about national sovereignty and the impact of migration, European societies, and the United Kingdom among them, are increasingly voicing fears about a loss of identity. And yet it is not membership of the EU which threatens identity, any more than migration or the threat of climate change. The greatest threat comes from within ourselves, and from the possibility that our fears and insecurities will change our core values and make us increasingly wary of the stranger and the vulnerable, increasingly hostile and inhospitable. Conversely, it is clear that the greatest challenges to our civilisation will be much better handled together, jointly and in co-operation with other countries and nations in our region.
Identity has always been a fluid entity; and in the end, rulers and political unions will continue to come and go, but people remain.
About the author
Jāna Jēruma-Grīnberga is the chaplain of St Saviour’s Anglican Church in Riga Latvia. She was installed to this post in October 2014. Prior to taking up this post she served as the bishop of the Lutheran Church in Great Britain taking office in January 2009. She is the daughter of the Latvian composer Albert Jerums and was in exile with her family during the communist era. She studied biochemistry at Univeristy College London and trained to become a nurse before feeling called to the priesthood, studying at North Thames Ministerial Training Course at Oak Hill Theological College and being ordained in 1997. Prior to becoming a bishop, she was a pastor in the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in Great Britain. She is probably the only woman Bishop in the world who speaks both Latvian and Swahili; her passions outside the church include cricket, music and politics.
Thank you for this. We have just had a visit from long-standing friends, a Finnish woman of a British father and a Finnish mother, married to a British man, living in Finland. They cannot understand why we would contemplate leaving something that has historically been so powerful in binding nations together in peace. Of course they quote ‘The EU is not perfect, but its better than no EU’. They have come over here so he can vote. They want me to visit them in 2 years time to pray for continued peace following their 100 anniversary as a nation and they see the EU as crucial to that.
We must thank the Anglican chaplain in Riga for this excellent testimonial to the integrity, identity & dignity of the Nation State manifested in the history & durability of Bulgaria & Sofia. I can’t imagine many better examples of why we need to LEAVE the EU to encourage a thorough respectful cooperative internationalism against those who promote deadening, bureaucratic & undemocratic supranationalism.
Great to get confirmation of what I have been trying to get across in several of my comments- the astonishment of most people on the other side of the foggy channel that the UK would vote to leave. What is so difficult about having multiple “identities” - a Yorkshire man, an Englishman and a European? I have grandchildren who are trilingual and identify with the UK, Bulgaria, where their mother comes from and Belgium where they live. Jāna Jēruma-Grīnberga
is absolutely right -what matters are the core values and the diversity and richness of customs from different countries adds to the fullness of life.
Of course our identity as a nation will be affected by membership of the EU. It has never hidden it’s agenda, for the nation states, to lose their individual identities, within the eventual European State.
The EU, was sold to the British people, as purely a trading block. The then PM, Ted Heath, having signed away some of our sovereignty, knowingly lied, to the nation, saying their would be no loss of sovereignty!!!!
We are now a vassal state of the EU. Their laws, overrule our laws.
We can trade with Europe, as we have successfully done for hundreds of years, prior to the EEC.
We can be friends, & remain British, but only if we are not ruled, by this anti democratic body.
Yes they have a parliament. It has about the same powers as China’s, and who would call China democracy. The EEC is run by unelected people, who are appointed to their positions, anyone ever have a chance to vote for Donald Tusk?
If we remain, then more and more of our hard earned freedoms, will be eroded, many already have been.
I lived in Germany for 8 years, and I made good friends there.
Many of them are now euro sceptic, and euro sceptic people are to found across the EU. So it is not just here, where people doubt the benefits of membership.
Some feel the EU will collapse if Britain leaves. If that is right, then the EU is very shaky, and may well implode either way.
That will cause instability across the continent, which will make the fiasco of Greece, seem really minor.
We are the 5th largest economy in the world.
We will do better, free of petty EU regulations, and increase our trade world wide, rather than relying on the dubious deal, we have in the EU.
As a Christian, I searched for Christian based leaflets, on the referendum, I found four.
All four, are telling people that they should vote Leave, and giving very good evidence why.
I must ask, where are the Christian based leaflets for Remain?
Are there none?
Perhaps that is because, the EU, rivals the Mafia in it’s corruption, is against democracy and freedom, & could be the evil reformed Roman Empire prophesied in Scripture!
So a vote to remain I believe, is a vote against Christianity.
John, they’re not leaflets as such but there are plenty of Christian-based reasons for remaining. If I use too many links then the comment won’t be included so let me start you on
https://nickbaines.wordpress.com/2016/06/19/eu-referendum/
http://www.revelationtv.com/rnews/entry/why-i-will-be-voting-for-the-uk-to-remain-part-of-the-european-union
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/6.ways.to.survive.an.eu.referendum/88811.htm
My question would be why is it that as a general rule those who are for Leave tend not to accept that there can be valid Christian reasons to Remain, whereas those who are for Remain tend to accept that both positions can be valid for Christians?
Christians will vote to Remain and Christians will vote to Leave. On a matter that is not doctrinal, and is not of primary importance to Christianity how sad to not have the humility to see that Christians can vote both ways with a clear conscience before God.
PS “Ted Heath knowingly lied”? Maybe I’m naïve but I’d have thought that if this was the case then there were a lot of people around him at the time who were either complicit or ignorant, neither of which seems to me to be readily believable
It is not true that Ted Heath sold the EEC to the British people as purely a trading block:
Speech by Edward Heath (Brussels, 22 January 1972)
“We mark today, with this ceremony, the conclusion of arduous negotiations over more than ten years which have resulted in another great step forward towards the removal of divisions in Western Europe ……
Britain has much to contribute to this process, and as Members of the Community we shall be better able to do so.
Britain, with her Commonwealth links, has also much to contribute to the universal nature of Europe’s responsibilities.
The collective history of the countries represented here encompasses a large part of the history of the world itself over the centuries.
I am not thinking today of the Age of Imperialism, now past: but of the lasting and creative effects of the spread of language and of culture, of commerce and of administration by people from Europe across land and sea to the other continents of the world.
These are the essential ties which today bind Europe in friendship with the rest of mankind”.
Should we turn our back on this aim, let down our partners of 40 years and denounce a system of cooperation, which may not be perfect, but still tries to find peaceable solutions to common problems?
‘The greatest threat comes from within ourselves, and from the possibility that our fears and insecurities will change our core values and make us increasingly wary of the stranger and the vulnerable, increasingly hostile and inhospitable.’
Jāna Jēruma-Grīnberga is the chaplain of St Saviour’s Anglican Church in Riga Latvia
“The first thing I ask is that people should not make use of my name, and should not call themselves Lutherans but Christians. What is Luther? The teaching is not mine. Nor was I crucified for anyone. How did I, poor stinking bag of maggots that I am, come to the point where people call the children of Christ by my evil name?”
Martin Luther (1483-1546)