I am writing this from the Holy Land, in a place so close to Bethlehem  you could walk there, if it weren’t for a certain wall.   

Everyone takes away learnings from the Holy Land, mostly profound, often life-changing.  The one I want to share today is about saints.

Palestine lays claim to St George. He was born near where I’m staying and his icon and image is everywhere. The Palestinian Christians are quite sure he is their saint.  They are not at all clear why the English have adopted him.

Why, they wonder, since we have our own Alban, would we bother with Palestinian George?  After all, we have Alban’s beautiful shrine in our cathedral.

There’s been a movement recently to try and get Alban adopted as the patron saint of England. Given the power and ubiquity of the George flag, it’s probably not going to get taken up by the popular press.

St Alban’s flag doesn’t have the same appeal as the George cross. But nonetheless there’s nothing to stop us promoting and celebrating our saint as much as we can. 

National pride isn’t always an unmitigated good, but national symbols can help unite a nation.

Let’s start a movement to get Alban up there as our saint – isn’t that something everyone could get behind?

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