Faith Matters Question Time

Farm Street Church in Mayfair, central London, was packed last night for a debate entitled: 'Faith Matters Question Time - A Christian response to the EU Referendum', chaired by Revd Lucy Winkett, Rector of Saint James Church, Piccadilly.

The three Catholic speakers were Dr Frank Turner SJ, Fellow in Political Theology, Campion Hall, Oxford; Jimmy Burns, author and journalist; Jacob Rees-Mogg, Conservative MP for North West Somerset. Each had a few minutes to state their case, before the panel received questions from the floor.

Fr Frank Turner began by stating that: "The EU is a good and necessary institution. Describing the origins of the EU, he said it was established not initially as an economic project, but one to promote peace on a continent that had seen many wars. "Peace trumps economics" he said, adding that shared sovereignty is not a loss but enriches all parties. Fr Frank said he was disappointed at the negative attitudes expressed on both sides of the debate. As a Christian, he said: "I don't want 'spacial status' I want an equal status."

Jimmy Burns began by saying he did not have the theological or political knowledge of the other two panel members, but as someone half Spanish he felt very strongly that he is a European, and he viewed Brexit as a "leap into the abyss." "Look at the 100 regulations that we will be dropping if we leave" he said. As Christians, we are called to "set aside our national interests in favour of the Common Good." He pointed out that the call for Brexit initially came from UKIP. Quoting from Laudato Si he said: "We must regain the conviction that we need one another, that we have a shared responsibility for others and the world."

MP Jacob Reese Moggs, parishioner at Farm Street, was given a longer time to speak as he was the only person arguing in favour of leaving the EU. He began by saying that he supported Brexit, because as a Christian, he believes in the defence of individual rights - which he feels are being lost in 'an unaccountable superstate." He said that the EU Commission was imposing decisions on other countries which they were powerless to reject. He listed a series of rulings which he said had failed. 'The EU is a failed superstate" he said. While the EU may have started out with high Christian ideals, those have collapsed now and he said the UK would do much better on its own. 

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