麻豆社

Good morning. Once on a trip to the Ukraine I visited Yalta. It was extraordinary to sit in a room dominated by the famous photograph of Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin sitting on a bench together. For it was there in February 1945 that they decided Europe鈥檚 post war organisation between them. And although the Cold War has ended the reverberations of that meeting can still be felt today in the very serious events in Kiev. For Mr Putin very much wants to retain the Ukraine in Russia鈥檚 sphere of influence, whilst many in the Ukraine prefer to look to Europe. This question of identity is not of course a new one, but it is once again a key issue not just in the Ukraine, but in so many parts of the world.

I think it is a healthy sign that in this country today we are familiar with and relaxed about the concept of multi-identity. For example, I regard myself as Christian by religion, Welsh by nationality, British by citizenship, and European by culture. The fact is that we are all a bundle of identities of which national identity is only one.

We are also much more aware that national identities are human constructs. As the historian Linda Colley has pointed out British identity was largely forged between 1707 and 1838 as a result of quite specific historical factors. So however we think of our identity, it has changed, is changing and will change further. It is a work in progress in which we can all have a part to play. And I believe that a religious perspective on life, properly understood, can help this process. As a Christian my ultimate identity lies with God, and this means that all other forms of identity, national or cultural, however much they might matter to us, cannot be of supreme importance.

St Paul very much valued his various human identities. He was proud to have been brought up and educated in Tarsus, now in South East Turkey, which he described as 鈥渘o mean city鈥�. He was a Hebrew by religious background, but also totally at home in Greek culture, the language in which he wrote. He also pointed out that he was a Roman citizen with the right to be tried in Rome itself. Yet, as Paul reminded the church at Philippi, a colony of retired Roman soldiers who were also proud of their Roman citizenship, their citizenship was in heaven. Our local loves and loyalties, including our nationality, help to shape who we are, and as such they matter-but a religious perspective, and not just a Christian one, ought to be able to keep these limited, transient, loyalties in their proper place and so drain them of the poison that can stir up or exacerbate conflict. They may be important to us but they cannot be of ultimate significance.

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