Mal Fletcher comments on 50 years of the EU

There are many challenges ahead for the European family of nations. Not the least of which is working out the common defence and security policy - especially in the age of terrorist insurgency. Immigration will continue to be a challenge for the next decade or so, as will trimming the bureaucracy of Europe, to make its business even more competitive in a fast moving world.

One of Europe's greatest challenges is surely to discover - or rediscover - the 'cult' at the core of its culture. We are not children of nothing. Europe's traditional values have been founded largely on a Christian worldview.

The poet T. S. Eliot, writing in 1945, clearly identified the link between Christianity and traditional European cultural values.

'The dominant feature in creating a common culture between peoples, each of which has its own distinct culture, is religion,' he wrote. 'I am talking about the common tradition of Christianity which has made Europe what it is, and about the common cultural elements which this common Christianity has brought with it...

'It is in Christianity that our arts have developed; it is in Christianity that the laws of Europe - until recently - have been rooted. It is against a background of Christianity that all our thoughts have significance... only a Christian culture could have produced a Voltaire or a Nietzsche. I do not believe that the culture of Europe could survive the complete disappearance of Christian faith.'

Christians everywhere should be praying and working to see a restoration of this proud cultural heritage.

On the whole, however, I think we can thank God for the decades of peace the EU has helped win for us. We can also pray that, in time, the new generations now arising in Europe will rediscover the Christian heritage which made their region strong - and so attractive to outsiders.

I, for one, will raise a glass to Europe this year and pray for its continued peace and prosperity.