Church of England preparing for war 'that involves the UK' amid fears over global conflicts
For what is thought to be the first time, a serving member of the Armed Forces - who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan - will brief the Church's ruling body on the threats facing Britain when it meets next month.
While not yet on a 'war footing' and still 'praying for peace', the Bishop to the Armed Forces said the Church is now readying itself to play an important spiritual role during 'conflict that involves the UK'.
As part of preparations for this, the CofE's top brass is looking back to the leadership shown by senior religious figures during the Second World War for inspiration.
Reverend Hugh Nelson, Bishop to the Armed Forces, said the Church wants to 'take seriously' the potential challenges ahead and avoid being caught out like the nation was by the pandemic.
Revd Nelson said he had been hearing from military personnel for the past two years 'rising concern about the threat of very, very serious conflict, including conflict that involves the UK'.
During a briefing ahead of next month's General Synod, he referenced the Government's national security strategy, published earlier this week, which warned the UK must actively prepare for a 'wartime scenario' on British soil 'for the first time in many years'.
The upcoming meeting of the Church's ruling body will receive an address by Brigadier Jaish Mahan, Deputy Commander (Reserves) 1st UK Division, in what is thought to be the first time a serving member of the Armed Forces who is not a CofE chaplain or Royal has spoken at Synod.
Brigadier Jaish - a practising Christian who joined the army in 1994 and served in Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Iraq and Afghanistan - will brief Synod on the 'global context and the challenges faced by the UK'.
A Synod agenda paper states: 'While a conflict directly involving the UK is not an immediate risk, given the very serious impact such a conflict would have on every person in the country, we must be prepared.
'The pandemic showed us the risks of being unprepared for a national crisis, and we must learn the lessons.'
Revd Nelson said today: 'As a Church, we want to take seriously those challenges, both to do everything that we can to pray for and work for and advocate for peace, because the kingdom of God is a kingdom of justice and peace, and to face the reality and to put in place, or at least to begin to have conversations towards plans about how the Church might need to respond and to be if there were to be a serious conflict.
'We do not want to be in the situation that we were all in - Church and wider society - pre-pandemic, when those that knew things said there will one day be a pandemic, and none of us had done anything in preparation for that. So we want to take that seriously.'
While he declined to go so far as to say the work was putting the Church on a 'war footing', he noted that consideration is being given to how religious leaders acted in previous wartime scenarios.
He said: 'We have looked back at some of the ways in which senior Church leadership - archbishops and bishops - led, the things that they said, particularly in the Second World War.'
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