Below is a speech that Dr Donald Coggan made in 1975, soon after his appointment as Archbishop of Canterbury. It has been hailed as one of the greatest speeches from any church leader in the past 50 years. We believe our readers will recognise a remarkable similarity to the situation which we are facing today, when the shaking of the nation is presenting great opportunities for evangelism.

I want to speak not only to members of the churches, but to all those who are concerned for the welfare of our nation at a time when many thoughtful people feel that we are drifting towards chaos.

Many are realising that a materialistic answer is no real answer at all. There are moral and spiritual issues at stake.

The truth is that we in Britain are without anchors. We are drifting. A common enemy in two world wars drew us together in united action – and we defeated him. Another enemy is at the gates today, and we keep silence. We are afraid to speak out: it is time we spoke plainly.

Each man and woman counts. Part of our trouble is that we think the individual is powerless. That is a lie! We are not powerless. Your vote counts. Your voice counts. You count. Each man and woman is needed if the drift towards chaos is to stop. Your country needs YOU!

Give us strong, happy, disciplined families and we shall be well on the way to a strong nation. The best way to cut at the roots of a healthy society is to undermine the family. So many young people who get into trouble with the law come from broken homes. The family matters, and it’s worth working hard to build it, protect it and provide for it.

But without sacrifice, without discipline, and without a sense of responsibility at the heart of our society, we are likely to perish.

‘A good day’s work for a fair day’s’ pay’, isn’t a bad motto for worker and for management. But pay isn’t everything. ‘Each for himself and the devil take the hindmost’ – makes for chaos! Guzzling doesn’t satisfy. ‘Grabbing and getting’ is a poor creed. Envy is a cancer. ‘Sacrifice’ is an unpopular word. ‘Discipline’ is even more so. But without sacrifice, without discipline, and without a sense of responsibility at the heart of our society, we are likely to perish. A bit of hardship hurts none of us. Can you deny it? We are growing soft.
I believe the only creed that makes sense is:

God first –
Others next –
Self last.

I see this worked out in the person and teaching of Jesus Christ. He has shown us the way – he gives us the power to follow it. And this is where prayer comes in.

Of course, we need money. We must think about money, but if we think about nothing else except money – and we are getting dangerously near that sorry state today – the standards of our life will decline, yes, even in the material sphere! Stark materialism does not work! It does not deliver the goods.

We must adopt a different attitude to money, and to materials and to machines. They are useful servants, but they are degrading masters. It is the kind of people who handle them that matters, and what their attitudes to life are. So, stop making money the priority.
I am not offering a detailed plan or any kind of blueprint as a way out of the troubles for Britain. There are no easy answers to our problems. I do not pretend to know all the answers. But this is the point I want to make – unless there is a concerted effort to lift our whole national debate up into the moral sphere, not being afraid to ask individuals as well as the community what is right and what is wrong, we shall never find the answers. I am concerned for the spirit which is abroad in the country, because our national problems will not be solved unless we improve it.

I also want to encourage the enormous number of good people in Britain. They want a better country. They are saddened by the low level to which we have fallen. But they have no spokesman. It is the extremists who tend to receive the publicity, and often they win the round. What I am attempting is to strengthen this group of responsible people.

Put another way, it means that we cannot leave out the moral factor and succeed in the long run.

And here is a third aim. I want to see opening up all over Britain, groups of men and women, of all denominations and of none, who will sit down and face these two questions: –

What sort of society do we want? and

What sort of people do we need to be in order to achieve it?

At first sight these questions seem extremely simple. But set them side-by-side and they imply something which to our great loss we have largely forgotten in our nation today – which is, that the sort of people we are, makes the society we get.

Put another way, it means that we cannot leave out the moral factor and succeed in the long run. It is in the light of this, that I want to initiate this debate today. It is in the light of this overriding consideration that I want the groups to do their thinking, working at specific problems in their own localities. 

By The Most Revd Dr Donald Coggan, October 1975

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After this speech, the Archbishop appeared on radio and television seven times during the following week. The press gave extraordinary coverage to what he was saying. Nearly every editorial comment was appreciative and constructive. The debate which he had intended to develop, had begun.

Sadly, it was the bishops in the Church of England who hated the Archbishop’s speech. They openly attacked him, and privately they told him that if he ever gave such a speech again in the nation, without consulting the House of Bishops, they would ensure that no other evangelical would ever become Archbishop of Canterbury again.

It is Archbishop Welby who has just appointed Stephen Knott, ‘married’ to Major General Alastair Bruce of Crionaich, Governor of Edinburgh Castle, as Archbishop’s Appointments Secretary, who will be responsible for all senior appointments in the Church of England.
Surely Donald Coggan must be turning in his grave!