London, UK - The Archbishop of Canterbury has criticised the “wooden-headed bureaucratic silliness” preventing some Christians from wearing religious symbols at work.
He nevertheless urged Christians to keep a sense of proportion when they feel they are experiencing opposition to their faith, and to remember the physical suffering of Christian minorities in other countries. He said that petty rules about the display of religious symbols should not be mistaken for physical persecution.
“It is not the case that Christians are at risk of their lives or liberties in this country simply for being Christians,” Dr Rowan Williams told Easter worshippers at Canterbury Cathedral. “Whenever you hear overheated language about this, remember those many, many places where persecution is real and Christians are being killed mercilessly, or imprisoned and harassed for their resistance to injustice.
“Remember our brothers and sisters in Nigeria and in Iraq, the Christian communities of southern Sudan, the Christian minorities in the Holy Land or our own Anglican friends in Zimbabwe . . . we need to keep a sense of perspective and to redouble our prayers and concrete support.”
Dr Williams spoke as Shirley Chaplin, a nurse, awaited an employment tribunal’s judgment this week as to whether she can wear a crucifix pendant at work. She told The Mail on Sunday that to take off the jewellery “would violate my faith”.
The Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust said that the pendant breached health and safety rules because it could scratch patients.
Mrs Chaplin, 54, told the newspaper: “I feel personally discriminated against, and I am very angry. I have worn my cross for 38 years and it has never harmed anybody. If I am forced to hide it, I feel I am denying my Christian convictions. I feel torn between my two vocations — my faith and my job.”