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This script cannot exactly reflect the transmission, as it was prepared before the service was broadcast. It may include editorial notes prepared by the producer, and minor spelling and other errors that were corrected before the radio broadcast.

It may contain gaps to be filled in at the time so that prayers may reflect the needs of the world, and changes may also be made at the last minute for timing reasons, or to reflect current events.

Radio 4 Opening Announcement:Ìý
Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4. It’s ten past eight and time now for Sunday Worship, which comes direct from The Well, Retford Baptist Church in Nottinghamshire.Ìý It marks the work of Thomas Helwys*, one of the earliest campaigners for freedom of religious conscience. The service is led by Baroness Berridge of the Vale of Catmose, Co-chair of the Parliamentary Group on International Freedom of Religion or Belief, ‘Freedom declared’,ÌýÌý and begins with the song ‘Praise God from whom all blessings flow’.

MUSIC: Praise God from whom all blessings flow

Ìý

WELCOME: Baroness Berridge
Good morning. Last Thursday was International Religious Freedom Day and this coming Tuesday is All Saints when, amongst others, we remember those who have died for their Christian faith. And so today is a very appropriate Sunday for us to thank God for our religious freedom.
The area around the town of Retford could claim to be the birthplace of religious freedom. The seventeenth century local hero Thomas Helwys was the first person to write in the English Language effectively what we now know as Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: the freedom to choose your own religion, or to not have any religion at all, and to live out that decision publicly. Helwys was put in prison and died there for claiming religious freedom for all. The freedom we enjoy today to worship is indeed part of Helwys’ legacy.
Leading the service with me is the Minister here at The Well, the Revd John Brewster, together with members of the congregation of this lively church and community centre at the heart of Retford. John leads us in prayer now:
PRAYER: Revd John Brewster
Almighty God our Creator, Father and Friend, we come before you this day to give thanks for the wonderful gift of life, with all its joys and responsibilities, its experiences and opportunities.
We especially thank and praise you for the right to worship you in freedom without fear of persecution or imprisonment.
Today we thank you for the life and example of Thomas Helwys and acknowledge your love both to us and to the whole world through his writings, sacrifice and personal example.
Help us to express our thanks not only in our praises and prayers, but also through the lives we lead; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Segue to hymn…
1 Here is love, vast as the ocean,

 
REVD JOHN BREWSTER
Four hundred years ago, around the year 1616, there died in London’s Newgate Prison one Thomas Helwys.
Ìý
ACTOR INSERT

For our Lord the King is but an earthly king, and he has no authority as a king but in earthly causes.Ìý And if the king’s people be obedient and true subjects, obeying all human laws, our Lord the king can require no more.Ìý

REVD JOHN BREWSTER
Thomas Helwys was imprisoned because his faith and religious convictions were regarded as seditious and put him outside the law that forced conformity in religion on the English people of the time.Ìý
Helwys was one of the founding fathers of the Baptist movement in England, a movement that has now spread in every continent across the world.
But Helwys was also, so far as we know, the first to make a plea in the English language for freedom of religion or belief, not just for himself and his fledgling Baptist community, but for all. And this at a time when such an idea was unthinkable in England.ÌýÌý
In a book published in 1612 Helwys declared that in matters of religion and conscience the English King James does not have power to determine the individual faith of his subjects.Ìý In such matters, only Christ could be King and Lord of the conscience.Ìý Helwys saw that in the life of Jesus the Gospel offer of forgiveness and new life was always offered freely and without coercion. His ideas are couched in language which today would quite properly be deemed not only out of date but offensive. But these are words from his times that are intended to promote acceptance of all people:

ACTOR INSERT

For men’s religion to God is between God and themselves.Ìý The king shall not answer for it.Ìý Neither may the King judge between God and men.Ìý Let them be heretics, Turks, Jews or whatsoever, it appertains not to the earthly power to punish them in the least measure.

REVD JOHN BREWSTER
So the witness of Thomas Helwys brings together the two themes of our worship today; remembering the saints that have gone before us; and bringing before God our responsibility to defend freedom of religion or belief in the world today.Ìý
MUSIC: Amazing grace

 
BARONESS BERRIDGEÌý
So what of the situation today? Freedom of religion or belief is a complex picture. An estimated 76 per cent of the world’s population live in countries with high levels of government restrictions on freedom of religion or belief, or where they face high-level hostility due to their religious affiliations, and this figure is rising. That’s why I initiated the All Party Parliamentary Group. But the situation is not without hope, and in some circumstances people of faith are cooperating across religious boundaries. This is Lord Singh:Ìý
PRE-RECORDED INSERT 1 Lord Singh.

Ìý

BARONESS BERRIDGEÌý
Throughout history and today the authors of persecution have been state sponsored or activists of all faiths and none. For long periods Christians have persecuted other Christians, the history of persecution and cruel execution in the Tudor period in England is horrifically well documented. From this part of Nottinghamshire non conformists fled religious persecution in the 17th century, eventually boarding a boat called the Mayflower and founding the nation which became the USA.ÌýÌý The freedom we all enjoy to be here today or to listen freely on the radio is part of Helwys’ legacy. We will now hear two further reflections on the current situation:
Ben Rogers of Christian Solidarity Worldwide speaks of his experience of visiting Alexander Aan, an atheist jailed for his beliefs. But first we hear about the work of the Joint Parliamentary Group on International Freedom of Religion or Belief, from another member of the group, Baroness Brinton. Contributions in this service are being made from a number of parliamentarians across the political spectrum.
PRE-RECORDED INSERT 2 [Baroness Brinton]
I am deeply concerned about the plight of all those around the world who are targeted for their religious beliefs, and in many cases find their places of worship routinely and indiscriminately attacked either by the State or by violent extremists, and that is why I am part of the All Party Group of Parliamentarians named Freedom Declared, to stand with fellow parliamentarians of all faiths and none for everyone who is persecuted. We aim to give a voice to those places where religious oppression - of whatever form and whatever faith - is little known about. For example, the Shiʿa Hazara community in the southwestern town of Quetta in Pakistan. Since the year 2000, over 2000 Shiʿa Hazaras including many women and children have been murdered or injured as a result of sectarian attacks by religious extremists.
As Christians part of our biblical responsibility to love our neighbour is displayed when we speak out on behalf of those who are persecuted, not just for fellow Christians, but for anyone who is being harmed for choosing whether to believe or not to believe in God.

The rich young ruler walked away from Jesus and I believe that Jesus would have stopped anyone from physically attacking him for rejecting the offer of eternal life that Jesus had just given him.Ìý God created us in a way that means we can choose him or reject him. I and Parliamentarians who are part of freedomdeclared want to defend the dignity given to each human being to make their own decision of conscience on eternal matters and I believe that Helwys was correct that such a decision is between God and Man.

PRE-RECORDED INSERT 3 BEN ROGERS
Four years ago, I visited Alexander Aan, an Indonesian atheist jailed for his beliefs. I was taken to the remote jail in Sijunjung, a four hour journey along rough, winding mountain roads from Padang, West Sumatra, by two young Muslims.
Alex is a soft-spoken, intelligent young civil servant with a passion for science. Arrested in January 2012, Alex spent two years in jail, charged with blasphemy.
I believe passionately in freedom of religion or belief, as outlined in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Freedom of religion or belief must include the freedom not to believe.
I visited Alex because I believe in his cause - his right to express his views peacefully, without being jailed, attacked or harassed. I was also there because it is in all our interests to protect people like Alex.
The freedom to choose and express your beliefs is the most important human right. When I met Alex, we had a fascinating discussion. I talked to him about Christopher Hitchens, whom he had not read; he talked to me about Jesus Christ, whom he had.
The freedom to exchange ideas is a freedom I cherish and one he was denied. I have different beliefs from Alex Aan, but I will give everything I have to defend his right to hold and express his.
BARONESS BERRIDGE
Andy Flannagan is a singer-songwriter and member of the organisation Open Doors. He wrote a song which is both about domestic abuse and religious persecution - a woman who was thrown to her death by her husband from the seventh story of a block of flats in a country in the Middle East because of her religious conversion. And hence it’s called Seven Storeys.

MUSIC….Andy Flannagan

BARONESS BERRIDGE
Our preacher this morning is the Revd Anthony Peck, General Secretary of the European Baptist Federation. But first we hear words from the Book of Galatians, Chapter 5. It’s read for us by one of the members of Freedom declared, Stephen Timms MP.

PRE-RECORDED INSERT 4 READING: Galatians 5
For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’
 
SERMON – Rev Tony Peck
Thomas Helwys, lawyer, dissenter, and Baptist pioneer, was possessed of a powerful vision way in advance of its time.
His plea for religious freedom for all, including other faiths, was about as far away as it could possibly be from the reality of early 17th century England. It was an idea that directly threatened the ordering of society, based as that was on legally enforced religious uniformity, everyone worshipping God in the same way.
To argue for a different vision was to dream of a different kind of society.Ìý A society based on the toleration of all known religious groups of his day, even those with whom he profoundly disagreed. This so threatened the status quo that the authorities tried to silence Thomas Helwys by locking him up in Newgate prison.
But his conviction of religious freedom for all lives on.Ìý It lives on in the DNA of the worldwide Baptist community he founded. It lives on in the work of those modern defenders of religious freedom for all that we celebrate in this act of worship. And so on this particular Sunday in the Christian year we rightly include Thomas Helwys in the communion of saints that surround us on our journey and inspire us in our work for religious freedom today.
What was it that lay at the root of Helwys' concern about religious freedom? Not in those days talk of the ‘inalienable rights’ or men and women.Ìý Rather it was rooted in his own Christian experience.Ìý It was the same passionate conviction of the Apostle Paul in the fifth chapter of his letter to the Galatians when he wrote that ‘it is for freedom that Christ has set us free… stand fast, therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery’
Paul too was dealing with attempts to establish a kind of outward religious conformity among those early Christian believers. He himself had been a former persecutor of Christians. But now Paul had been set free from fear and hatred by his encounter with the risen Christ on the Damascus road.
Freedom is at the heart of the biblical witness and the Christian message.Ìý In love and freedom, God created men and women and gave them their free will to accept or reject his way and his purpose for them.Ìý
It’s a strongly Jewish idea too. In the Old Testament we find the story of the Exodus and the freeing of God’s people from slavery in Egypt.Ìý Even today it is a powerful motif of freedom from injustice and all that would oppress, enslave and de-humanise.Ìý The Baptist civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, echoed this in his famous ‘I have a dream’ speech, and its final cry to “Let Freedom Ring’ in the segregated Southern States of America of his time
And for the Christian, the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is one great freedom event .... where God enters this world to experience our life, to suffer our death and then to set us free from its power over us.ÌýÌý It is captured in the words of Jesus himself recorded in John Chapter 8, thatÌý ‘If the son shall set you free you will be free indeed.’
The Apostle Paul emphasised that this freedom is not only ‘freedom from’ but freedom for’.Ìý This inner freedom is reflected in the way those who follow Christ live their lives and deal with others. All should be free to respond to God, free to follow the way of Christ, free to witness to his Gospel, free to worship, free to be the church in every place. Faith cannot be coerced or compelled but is the free response of the heart to the call of God on our lives.
Thomas Helwys took this a stage further in addressing the England of his day.Ìý He argued that this precious freedom should be guaranteed by government and society for all churches and all religions.Ìý He declared that no king, no government has the power to command the individual conscience.Ìý That right belongs only to God.ÌýÌýÌý
Today we live in a world where religious freedom is under threat in new and terrifying ways, and in an age where there have never been so many Christian martyrs.ÌýÌý
 
One of them I know about was Rami, a prominent Baptist Christian living in Gaza and who owned the only Christian bookshop there.Ìý In 2007 he was kidnapped and murdered in an act that shocked the whole Christian community in Gaza and led to other Christian families having to leave there in fear of their lives.ÌýÌý Since then we have seen the horror of the deaths of many other Christian martyrs in the Middle East.
But there are also good stories to tell. In all the turmoil and uncertain outcome of the events in Tahrir Square in Cairo in 2011 I received an email from Mounir, one of the leaders of the Baptists in Egypt.Ìý He told me of how in the midst of the violence and unrest Christians and Muslims were protecting each other and each other’s property.Ìý And perhaps even more significant, he said, they were getting to know one another as neighbours for the first time.Ìý
Or I think of my Lebanese friend Martin who is a key Christian voice in the Middle East.Ìý He urges us not to see Christians as a beleaguered minority but as part of a ‘silent majority’ of people of all faiths who desire to live together in peace; and who together will speak out against a "reckless minority" who would promote violent fanaticism or a view that paints entire religions in the hues of violence and terror.’
So that beginning from our own experience of freedom in Christ we can with confidence defend today the freedom to believe, to witness, and to worship whenever and wherever in the world it is threatened.Ìý In this way the bold and courageous words of the Apostle Paul and the Baptist Thomas Helwys continue to inspire us both to prayer and to action.ÌýÌýÌý

MUSIC: The Needy will not be forgotten (Geraldine Latty solo)
 
BARONESS BERRIDGE
The Needy will not be forgotten, by Geraldine Latty who is joins our worship today. As we come to the end of our service we commit all that we have been thinking about to God in prayer.

READER 1
Loving Heavenly Father, we thank you for the life of Thomas Helwys, given for the cause of freedom of religion or belief.Ìý Forgive us that so often we forget about lives like his and do not recognise the great history of courageous lives lived for you here in our own country.Ìý Forgive us when we judge other countries and do not remember that the horrors of today’s persecution of people for their choice about you, were previously meted out not long ago in our history.Ìý Thank you for the freedoms we enjoy in the UK today and for the lives of many martyrs who won those freedoms for us.ÌýÌý Amen

READER 2
We thank you for the work of the local people here and around to re-discover their local history and honour Helwys’ life and legacy.Ìý May your people here provide a wonderful witness of your love for all humanity by speaking up for those persecuted for their faith or belief and may this inspire the whole church to speak for all persecuted people.Ìý Amen

 
READER 1
We pray for Christians throughout the world who are persecuted that you would give them courage and that you would help us to speak up for them.Ìý We pray that you would send your Holy Spirit to give them endurance today and confidence that their eternity is in heaven with you where there will be no more suffering.Ìý Amen
Ìý
READER 2
Loving Heavenly Father, we bring to you this morning the nations of the world, in particular the people of Syria, and the many other countries where people are affected by violence committed in the name of religion.Ìý We pray for religious, political and civic leaders and for every person in this world to flourish using their God given gifts and talents.Ìý Amen

READER 1
And we bring all our prayers together in the Lord’s prayer, which we sing together.Ìý Amen

MUSIC: Lord’s Prayer

 
BLESSING (Rev John Brewster)
Go forth into the world in peace;
be of good courage;
hold fast that which is good;
render to no one evil for evil;
strengthen the fainthearted; support the weak;
help the afflicted; honour everyone;
love and serve the Lord,
rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit;
And the blessing of God almighty,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
be among you and remain with you always.
Amen.

BARONESS BERRIDGE
As we end our service if you wish to find out more about the All Party Parliamentary Group you can visit our website at freedomdeclared.org. We close with a well known contemporary song of praise by Matt Redman - Bless the Lord O my soul, Worship His Holy name.

MUSIC: Bless the Lord, O my soul, worship your holy name (Redman – 10,000 Reasons)