Betrayal of their flock: A Bishop’s rebuke to Anglican hierarchy who denounce Christians marching with Tommy Robinson By

Bishop Ceirion H Dewar

September 22, 2025

I WAS there. I stood at the front of the recent Unite the Kingdom event in London, and I led the prayers from the stage. I saw ordinary men and women – fathers carrying their children, pensioners gripping their sticks, young men and women lifting their voices – gathered not in hatred but in hope, not in rage but in resolve. I saw the cross of Christ raised aloft, not as a weapon of division but as a banner of faith.

Yet, within days, the familiar chorus began. Bishops and clergy, those who should have stood shoulder to shoulder with their faithful, rushed instead to the newspapers to denounce them. With one hand, they clutched their mitres and collars; with the other, they pointed accusingly at their own people. And with trembling voices, they scolded not those who desecrate our heritage, but those who dared to carry the cross into the public square.

This is no small failure. It is a betrayal of vocation, a collapse of courage, and a surrender to the spirit of the age.

Abandoning the faithful

The first calling of bishops and clergy is simple: feed my sheep. Not feed the media, not soothe the cultural elite, not curry favour with the powers of this world – but feed the sheep.

Yet what we now witness is the abandonment of the flock. The faithful, anxious about the future of their nation, concerned about the moral collapse of society, longing for leaders who will speak plainly, find instead that their shepherds have deserted them. They are branded with the scarlet letters of ‘far-right’ or ‘extremist’, not by enemies of the faith, but by their own bishops and clergy.

I tell you: this is cowardice draped in clerical robes. It is easier to condemn your own than to confront the godless ideologues tearing apart the nation. It is safer to sneer at the sheep than to stand against the wolves. But it is treachery all the same.

Social agendas above scripture

Bishops and clergy today have found a new gospel. It is not the gospel of Christ crucified and risen: it is the gospel of inclusivity, diversity, sustainability, and every other slogan that wins them polite applause in editorial offices and political chambers.

This counterfeit gospel is not salvation from sin but affirmation of self. It does not lead men to repentance but lulls them into complacency. It does not transform, it merely conforms.

The true gospel is scandalous because it divides light from darkness, truth from falsehood, life from death. But these bishops and clergy prefer a gospel that never offends. They wrap the cross in bubble-wrap, lest anyone be pricked by its sharp edges. And in so doing, they rob it of power.

Make no mistake: this is not prudence. It is compromise. And compromise with falsehood is betrayal of truth.

Smearing the concerned

The tactic is predictable: label all dissent as dangerous. To raise questions about uncontrolled immigration? ‘Far-right’. To voice concern about crime in our streets? ‘Far-right’. To object to ideologies foisted upon our children? ‘Far-right’.

This is lazy rhetoric and moral cowardice. It is designed not to answer but to silence, not to shepherd but to shame. And it is deeply unchristian.

The prophets were accused of rebellion. Christ was denounced as a blasphemer. The apostles were branded disturbers of the peace. To be faithful in a corrupt age is always to be misrepresented. Yet bishops and clergy now join the chorus of slanderers. Rather than defending their flock, they amplify the jeers of the mob.

If they cannot see the difference between genuine concern for the nation and the poison of extremism, they are blind guides. If they can see it and choose to smear anyway, they are complicit liars.

Ivory towers of false piety

Picture it: bishops and clergy issuing statements from their cathedrals and churches, tutting at the ‘co-opting of the cross’, wagging their fingers at those who dared to pray in public. They posture as defenders of holy things, yet they are silent when those same holy things are mocked in our schools, sidelined in our courts, erased from our history.

They claim to guard the sanctity of the cross, yet they strip it of its scandal, its authority, its demand for repentance. They denounce its appearance on the streets, while they themselves turn the Church into a chaplaincy for the state and a mouthpiece for cultural fads.

This is not holiness. It is hypocrisy. It is the arrogance of men who believe their robes give them moral superiority while their pulpits ring hollow and their congregations dwindle.

The people are not blind. They see through it. And they are weary of it.

The cross is for all

The cross of Christ is for all – not just for the pious pronouncements of clerics, not just for the carefully managed services inside cathedral and church walls. It belongs in the marketplace, the public square, the street where lives are lived and nations are shaped.

When I saw it lifted at the march, I did not see desecration. I saw devotion. I saw a people unashamed to confess Christ before men.

Bishops and clergy who would rather see the cross confined to their sacristies have forgotten that the Lord of the cross is the Lord of history. They cannot lock Him in their chancels, nor silence Him with their press releases.

A call to courage

As a bishop, I cannot remain silent. Those bishops and clergy who condemned that march should be thoroughly ashamed. They have revealed their fear of man and their contempt for the faithful. They would rather be praised by the world than persecuted with Christ.

But the time has come to say it plainly: your cowardice is killing the Church. Your compromises are emptying the pews. Your silence on truth is deafening, and your eagerness to condemn your own people is disgraceful.

Repent. Return to the vows you made. Remember that your office is not to mirror the culture but to confront it with the Word of God. Better to be hated with Christ than applauded with Caesar. Better to be dismissed as ‘far-right’ for standing with the truth than congratulated for bowing to lies.

Conclusion

History will not remember the press releases of cowardly bishops and clergy. It will not record their carefully worded denunciations or their mealy-mouthed attempts to please all sides. It will remember only their betrayal.

But it will also remember those who stood unashamed. It will remember the men and women who lifted the cross in the public square, who prayed aloud while others scoffed, who refused to let the faith of this land be trampled into silence.

The cross of Christ will outlast the cowardice of these bishops and clergy. It will outshine their compromises. It will stand long after their cathedrals are empty, because it is not theirs to own or control.

I was there. I led the prayers. I saw the cross lifted in hope. And I will not allow false shepherds to defame the faithful unchallenged. The Church may be led by cowards, but it is not devoid of courage. The people of God will stand – with or without their bishops and clergy.

And when the Judge of all the earth appears, He will not ask how well they aligned with cultural agendas. He will ask if they were faithful to Him. Woe to those bishops and clergy who chose the approval of men over the truth of Christ.

ED - Christ is above any religion. When religions deny Christ, they have outlived their purpose.