Was the Holy Lamb of God on England’s pleasant pastures seen?

No. But here's why it's fun to thinking about it.

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England’s pleasant pastures green

The Glastonbury Festival is a regular fixture in the liturgical calendar of the secular media. Almost. Like all proper festivals, it retains an element of mystery, like the date of Easter. Next year, the Eavis farm will be having a fallow year. Instead of harvesting the twenty-pound notes emptied onto the ground by thousands of festivalgoers, the land will be grazed by cattle in order to allow the field to recover, which will also provide one thing that helps create demand: scarcity.

The most recent Glastonbury festival has sparked controversy because of the weaponisation of a story. This is sad, but nothing new. In fact, the ancient stories surrounding Glastonbury itself have been told and retold in a way that serves some other cultural or political narrative.

So, in this instalment of Cary’s Almanac, I too would like to deviate briefly from the established format. Much as I’d like to show you picture of some cows grazing in the fields of Somerset, I’ve got a video for you which delves into the foundation of the story of the Church in England and centres around Glastonbury.

Didn’t Christianity in England start with 597 and all that? No, Christianity was here before then via the missionary work of Celtic saints. This is not in doubt. But some say Christianity came earlier still, with Joseph of Arimathea. In the video, I talk about this in the churchyard of St John the Baptist’s church in Glastonbury where we find ‘A Holy Thorn’ which has meant different things to different generations down the ages.

There’s a nice moment at the very end where I’ve put an interesting out-take from the recording of the video. So I recommend watching all the way to the end. It’s 16 minutes, so you might want to put the kettle on. When you’ve done that, why not leave a comment below the video, or here. And I’ve got a bit more below.

Watched the video? Great. Let’s now consider William Blake’s poem of 1804, which was turned into a popular national hymn, Jerusalem. It was set to music by Parry in the dark days of 1916, in the middle of the First World War when morale was starting to flag. Again, the Christian story was co-opted for political purposes. The question was not whether Christianity in England came from Joseph of Arimathea but Christ himself. The hymn begins with two questions:

And did those feet in ancient times

Walk about England’s mountain green?

And was the holy Lamb of God

On England’s pleasant pastures seen?

No, William. Jesus did not come to England. Why would you even think he did? This myth emerged from the Joseph of Arimathea story of which there is no written record until 1247. Even then, it is a note in the margin of William of Malmesbury’s book, On the Antiquity of the Church of Glastonbury, originally written around 1125. You’d think it would be in the original version, wouldn’t you? Instead, William of Malmsbury suggests that Glastonbury’s “Old Church” was founded by early disciples of Christ, possibly sent by Pope Eleuterus. Over time, this turns into Joseph of Arimathea. And this, in turn, evolves into a visit to England by Christ himself. Did medieval Christians really believe that? One assumes Blake did not, writing during the period of so-called Enlightenment.

Our ancestors, however, might have been more sophisticated than this current generation who have, in fact, been blinded by the Enlightenment. In the 13^th century, perhaps everyone understood that Christ himself did not come to these shores during his earthly ministry. Or course he didn’t. But wouldn’t it be fun to imagine he did? We have an entire movie industry whose stock-in-trade is speculation. Why should our forebears be any different? Will future generations wonder if we really believed in Iron Man?

The fact is that Jesus did come to England’s pleasant pastures in the hearts of the disciples, dwelling in them by his Spirit. It was their feet, fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace (Ephesians 6:15), that walked upon England’s mountains green, fulfilling the Great Commission, issued by Christ himself, making disciples of a nation: England, at the ends of the earth. This is a story that brought unity to England and victory over the Vikings. I wonder if we are in danger of fragmenting and falling back into those dark days. The latest Glastonbury festival would suggest that we are, unless we can recover our true identity in the Christian story. That’s what this Almanac is all about.

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