Britain is a country that is thrashing around to discover a sense of identity. Having come back to life in Britain in 2007 after 31 years away I have to say that in too many respects this is not the country that I left. There is an immense ethical and moral vacuum, but I am increasingly of the mind that this is a presenting symptom of a much deeper malaise. There is a determination to spurn and scorn the past, to deny the goodness of much that Britain might have done or been in the world, but in its place to put ideas and attitudes that have little or no staying power.

The churches have also been deeply infected by this mindset, and while there are all sorts of good things happening here in places, there seems to be no coherent strategy to move forward. There are certainly some gifted leaders, but too often they are herding cats.

One of my responses has been on a number of occasions, “How on earth did these people win an empire?” But then, they wish that they had not won an empire, because popular opinion is that empires, especially the British Empire, are bad things—and should be discouraged.

Islam sees Britain as a prime mission field, would that the Christian churches around the world could respond in like manner. As I say, British people are seeking a new identity, and right now they are looking in a good few wrong places in an effort to forge it.