You may have looked up at St Mary’s steeple and wondered why our church flies the St George’s Cross or the Union Flag (the two flags permitted to be flown from church buildings).
In a climate where national identity is often weaponised, it is easy to assume these flags are a rallying cry for an exclusive, “us-vs-them” vision of England.
But as the Church, we need to be clear: our allegiances are not to a border, but to a person – Jesus Christ, a refugee in his early life, who died for all people.
If you are tired of seeing faith hijacked by nationalist agendas, we hear you.
Here is why we keep these flags flying—and why they mean something very different to us than they do to some of our political leaders and agitators.
Why We Fly Them
- They aren’t “Property” Flags: We don’t fly these flags to claim that England belongs to a specific ethnic or cultural group. We fly them to acknowledge our place in the local community of Thame. A Church of England is a servant of its parish – every person, regardless of background, origin, or belief.
- The Subversion of St George: St George was a man of colour from Cappadocia (modern-day Turkey). He was a soldier of empire who ultimately chose to defy the imperial cult of his day to follow a radical, marginalised Palestinian carpenter. We are raising the symbol of a man who died because he refused to place empire above the humanity of the “other.”
- The Cross is the Counter-Culture: The cross on our St George’s flag is the same one we worship. By putting it at the top of our building, we are signalling that this nation’s true value isn’t found in borders or policies, but in the radical, sacrificial love of the Cross. It is a reminder that we are not our own – we belong to a God whose family knows no frontiers.
- A Welcome, Not a Barrier: True Christian faith is inherently universal. Nationalism says, “You don’t belong here.” The Gospel says, “Come to the table.” If our flags are ever used to make someone feel unwelcome or excluded, we have failed our mission. We fly them as an invitation to a community that is striving to be a place of reconciliation, not a fortress of exclusion.