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A new declaration has been launched by Christians that calls on the UK government and leaders in society and academia to respect human dignity and freedom of conscience.
The 2025 Westminster Declaration has been drawn up by Christians concerned by the deterioration of civil liberties, morality, and the value of human life in the UK in recent years.
It is intended as an update to the 2010 Westminster Declaration in light of the huge changes in the UK since then.
“Some of the choices made by Parliament and others in authority about the nature of human life, family relationships, sex education in schools, end-of-life care, and the use and development of new technologies are having serious consequences,” the declaration reads.
“By ignoring Britain’s Christian heritage we have endangered human life, weakened society, and created a fragmented nation uncoupled from its formative traditions, and without a unifying vision for its future.”
The declaration is divided into seven key areas of concern: freedom of belief and of conscience; the value of human life; marriage, family and children; parents and school education; biological sex and gender; the role of the university; AI and moral reflection.
It warns that democracy in Britain is at serious risk unless freedom of belief, conscience and speech are protected.
“Religion is a protected characteristic, of equal standing with the eight other characteristics stated as having protection under law. We oppose therefore any attempt to subordinate religious freedom to the demands of activist or political groups seeking to assert dominance,” it states.
Elsewhere, it deplores “the current epidemic of family instability” and says that separation and divorce have become “too easily available” and “normalised”. It calls for a strengthening of marriage and family life instead.
On sex and gender, the document says that there is a Christian duty to show compassion towards people confused about their gender while affirming “the givenness of biological sex” and calling on the Department for Education to ensure that classroom teaching reflects the recent Supreme Court ruling on the definition of ‘man’ and ‘woman’.
The declaration also speaks out against the legalisation of assisted suicide, and says that parents have the primary responsibility for their children’s education and upbringing.
The launch in Westminster on Saturday was led by a number of respected Christian leaders, among them the former Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali, the former government’s Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief, Fiona Bruce, theologian and peer Lord Biggar, and Major General Tim Cross.
In his address to the conference, Nazir-Ali said that if society asks Christians to do something unbiblical or prevents them from living out their faith “then we have to say ‘no’, respectfully but clearly”.
“We must continue to worship God in any way we can,” he said, adding that Christians have to ask themselves whether society has reached such a point that they must “work against the grain”.
He suggested that there needed to be a paradigm shift in the Church to become a “community of light” that can attract people out of the “growing darkness”.
“[It] can’t simply mean being in a holy huddle hoping people will come and join us … the light must illuminate what is right in our society and what is wrong,” he said.
Commenting on the arrest of numerous street preachers “simply for sharing their faith”, Nazir-Ali said, “I may not agree with their methodologies but they should be free to do so.”
Mrs Bruce said that there was a “spiritual battle” waging at the level of British politics as she called on the next generation to consider whether they might be being called to Parliament, although she cautioned that “being a Christian in Parliament is spiritual warfare”.
Despite being a minority, she spoke of how a few committed Christian MPs had successfully challenged assisted suicide and looser Sunday trading laws, and secured millions of pounds in funding for a network of family support hubs across the country.
“That’s the difference just a handful of Christian MPs working together can make,” she said.
Mrs Bruce went on to say that she was greatly encouraged by reports of a ‘quiet revival’ among young people.
“The liberal experiment over the last two generations simply isn’t working; it’s failed … and they want something different,” she said.
Mrs Bruce said she was meeting more and more young people interest in getting into politics.
“They have a sense of urgency to push back against what has happened to their world,” she said.
It is her hope that if more young Christians enter Parliament, they will “not just hold back this tide of liberalism and progressivism but they could actually see Christian principles brought back into society, and society changed”.
Lord Biggar cautioned Christians to engage in a civil manner with people who hold different views, saying that they had a “duty of love” and were “not to alienate other people needlessly”.
The conference was hosted by former BBC journalist Robin Aitken who said that the mainstream media in the UK is “deeply antagonistic” towards Christian beliefs and has a “profound ignorance” of the Christian faith. His own former employer, he said, was no different and had “much to repent for”.
He said he wanted to see more young people rise up against the “progressive heresy” dominating “all our institutions”, and that it was his prayer that the 2025 Westminster Declaration would lead the country back to Christianity.
“What today is about is nothing less than the re-Christianisation of Britain,” he said.
“If that sounds ambitious, it is,” he said, adding, “There has never been and will never be a better blueprint for human flourishing and happiness than the rules laid out for us by God Himself in the person of Jesus Christ.”
Christian declaration calls for freedom of conscience and respect for human dignity
