A promise to keep

Last week it was announced that after widespread consultation the Promise girls and young women make on joining the Guiding organisation was being revised.

Brownies and Guides will still promise to ‘to my best’, ‘to help other people’ and ‘to keep the Guide law.’

But whereas a decade ago my daughters pledged ‘to love my God’ and ‘to serve my Queen and my country’, from September new Guides and Brownies will promise ‘To be true to myself and develop my beliefs’, and ‘To serve the Queen and my community.’

The change has been criticised by some Christians, distressed that reference to God has been abandoned, and uncomfortable that the new Promise focuses on ‘me’ and on ‘my community’ rather than taking a wider view of young people’s responsibilities.

But the Guiding organisation seeks to serve young women regardless of their religious beliefs or lack of them, and it is surely appropriate to have a Promise which all members can honestly say. The decision to amend the wording seems to me to be a pragmatic move respectful of the views of members and potential members rather than being itself driven by a secularist agenda.

And in fact many Christians will recognise helpful aspects in the new Promise. It is good to be ‘true to yourself.’ Each of us is unique, with a distinctive personality and set of creative gifts. Our knowledge of who we are and what we have to offer will develop side by side with our commitment to help others. It is thoroughly Christian to encourage young women to embrace their unique identities, not to foster self-absorption, but because the better we know ourselves, the more we will be equipped to make a difference in our communities.

And being ‘true’ to yourself involves recognising that within the limits of good citizenship you are free to choose the beliefs and values which will shape your life, free to resist pressure to conform to any social or political agenda, or to anyone else’s expectations for you.

The young girl who responded to the consultation exercise by saying she thought she was ‘lying to the Brownies’ by making a promise to a God in whom she did not believe may in time, if she is committed to being true to herself sense in her heart that restless quest for meaning and wholeness which Christians believe finds its ultimate answer in God.

All Guides and Brownies will in future to promising to ‘develop my beliefs’. To take this promise seriously is to be open, to ask questions, to be ready to doubt, to be alive to new ways of looking at things, an openness which is surely to be encouraged.

And what about that pledge to serve ‘my community’ rather than ‘my country’. ‘Too narrow!’ say the critics. Well, I’m not so sure if many of us now have a strong sense of national identity or national purpose. To critics of the new Promise that is something to be regretted, a symptom of social malaise, but it is a fact.

On the other hand, a commitment to serve your community gives you a place to start. It’s achievable. As an 8-year-old Brownie you learn that you, and the pack, by one small action at a time can make a difference to the world around you. Guide leaders are good a stretching the imagination of their charges, so that girls and young women catch a glimpse of the bigger communities they belong to – interest groups, on-line communities, national communities, the world community – and grasp the challenge of making a difference in these communities too. Making the world a better place, or in Christian language, working for the coming of the Kingdom.

It’s very interesting that a majority of the 44,000 taking part in the consultation make it clear they wanted to retain the expression of allegiance to the Queen, whom Brownies and Guides will still promise to ‘serve.’

It’s not disrespectful to ask ‘What does this actually mean?’ No longer does royalty give personal commands to citizens. Is ‘serving the Queen’ simply another way of saying ‘serving my country’? Does it simply mean ‘obeying the law’, ‘being a good and loyal citizen’? Or is serving the Queen being true to the values Her Majesty embodies – justice, truth, righteousness. Are we to see ourselves serving her in every act of kindness we do?

Though we may omit all reference to God in public life, Christians believe that God will not be silenced. God speaks in this cry of our hearts for a leader, for someone to serve. We are created to do all our living, all our journeying towards personal integrity, all our working for change individually and together in partnership with the God whom the Queen also serves.

(Christian Viewpoint column from the Highland News dated 27th June 2013)