Patrick Comerford
Today has been a rain-soaked day and has been Holy Cross Day. We marked this day in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church in Stony Stratford at Choral Evensong last night and at the Parish Eucharist this morning (14 September 2025).
I also attended the Divine Liturgy in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford this morning, where today’s Feast was marked with Mattins, the Divine Liturgy and the Elevation of the Holy Cross, led by Father Gregory Wellington.
Holy Cross Day is a traditional Orthodox commemoration that I have attended in Greece in previous years in both Preveli and Arkadi monastery in Crete. This day celebrates the discovery of the True Cross by Saint Helen in the year 326, followed by her son, the Emperor Constantine, building the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem in the year 335.
During these special services in the Orthodox tradition, the cross is elevated and venerated. It is traditional to bring sweet basil to church, as it is said to have grown around the cross. The cross is then placed on a bed of basil, and people receive blessed sprigs of basil sprigs after the liturgy.
This reverence of the Cross last night and today is in sharp contrast to the misuse, abuse, and (dare I say) the desecration of the Cross in recent weeks, when the Cross of Saint George has been used as a symbol of exclusion and hate up and down the land, and especially at yesterday’s far-right displays in central London.
Please do not get me wrong. There are appropriate times to fly the flag with the Cross of Saint George and, perhaps, even to be proud of it. It is appropriate to fly a flag with the cross on it from church towers, especially on Easter Day, Saint George’s Day, Sundays – indeed, on an any day.
This flag flies each day at the top of the tower of Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church in Stony Stratford, and it should never be conceded to or hijacked by political extremists, who have no understanding of the Cross as a symbol of love, forgiveness, personal sacrifice, compassion, inclusion and new life.
It is appropriate to fly the flag outside pubs with names like the Old George or the George and Dragon. In other words, the flag can be a sign of welcome and inclusion.
It is appropriate to fly the flag this evening to celebrate England’s win over Scotland in the Women’s World Cup quarter final.
But it is not – and never should be allowed to become – a symbol of exclusion, of racism, of hatred.
The cross is found on the flag of many European nations, including Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Georgia, Greece, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and – depending on how you look at them – the flags of Malta and Slovakia. There are even those who would make the Cross of Saint Patrick the flag of Ireland.
It reflects the historical and cultural legacies of those nations and states, but was never intended to exclude others. The flag of the United Kingdom, in all its contortions and complexity, was designed not as symbol of imperialism or triumphalism, but to express hope of harmony between the nations of England, Scotland and Ireland.
The far-right flag flyers seem to be unaware of this symbolism too. But they also seem to be unable to realise that hanging a flag at half-mast is a sign of mourning, and flying a flag upside down is a sign of distress.
Many of them cannot tell the difference between the flag of England and the flags of Denmark and Switzerland, or between the flag of England and the flag of Georgia.
As they painted the cross on roundabouts and road crossings, they were inviting motorists to drive on the cross and pedestrians to walk on the cross. How many of them ever heard of the countless Christians who were martyred for their refusal to walk on the cross and to trample it underfoot.
The sprig of fresh basil I took home from this morning’s liturgy are filling our kitchen with sweet aromas this evening, and the words of the liturgy are still echoing in my ears.
In the Epistle reading in the Orthodox liturgy today (I Corinthians 1: 18-24), Saint Paul says ‘the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.’
In his notes on today’s readings, prepared for the Ecumenical Patriarchate Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain, Father Gregory writes: ‘We are … called to emulate Christ in self-sacrificial love towards God and towards our neighbour … We need … to act charitably to our neighbour, give of our time and talents, help those around us, and spread Christ’s message.’
And that is showing true respect for the Cross on the flags of England and the United Kingdom.
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