THE CARE AND PROTECTION OF CHILDREN AND YOUTH A

• Published date: 01 July 1998
• Date: 01 July 1998
• Author: Canon George Nairn‐Briggs
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.174-1617.1998.tb00516.x

THE CARE

AND

PROTECTION

OF

CHILDREN AND

YOUTH

A

Public

or

a

Private Responsibility?

Reverend

Canon

George

Naim-Brig@

is

the Provost

of

Wakefield Cathedral.

The presentation

as

I

gave it at the Second World Congress on Family Law

and the Rights of Children and Youth is preceded by the background paper

that was distributed to all members

of

the workshop. That paper immediately

follows this opening paragraph. At the end of that, I will reproduce my pres-

entation.

A BIT

OF

BACKGROUND

The Roman Legions probably first brought Christianity to the British

Isles. It remained after they had been withdrawn to defend Rome from the

barbarians. There is strong evidence that it spread and flourished in the Celtic

areas of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and the West of England, although the bulk

of

the English mainland was overrun by pagan invaders

from

continental

Europe.

1997

marks the 1400th anniversary of the landing of St. Augustine of Can-

terbury in Kent and the reestablishment of the links between British Christi-

anity and mainland Europe. In the time of King Henry

VIII,

the Reformation

reached England. Following Henry’s break with Rome, religion and politics

became closely intertwined with the fear of an invasion by Roman Catholic

Spain, making anyone who did not become

a

member of the Church

of

Eng-

land (as Henry’s reformed church was now called) suspected of being a

trai-

tor. The Church of England was the established religion. That is, it had privi-

leges, with the Archbishop

of

Canterbury being second only to the monarch

in “precedence”

in

the country. The monarch has

also

always traditionally

been crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury in a religious service which

makes clear the intertwining of State and Church. In the intervening centuries

FAMILY

AND CONCILIATION COURTS

REVIEW,

Vol.

36

NO.

3.

July

1998

345-354

8

1998

Sage

Publications.

Inc.

345