Nationwide Festival of Light

How It Happened

In November 1970 a young couple, Peter and Janet Hill, returned to England after four years as evangelical Christian missionaries in India. They were surprised to see how much had changed in their homeland since 1966 – lewd magazines in the local newsagent, half-clad models on public hoardings, casual sex depicted in films and condoned in newspapers.

Hill imagined tens of thousands of young people marching on London to take a stand for Christian moral principles. The idea took root when he heard of 10,000 men engaged in a March of Witness through Blackburn calling for Christian moral standards to be restored to the nation.

Soon Hill was in contact with a wide network of people sharing his concern and offering their encouragement. Among these were Malcolm Muggeridge, Mary Whitehouse, Lord Longford, Bishop Trevor Huddleston and Cliff Richard. Grassroots support came from Anglicans, Baptists, Brethren and Pentecostal church denominations.

A working committee was established by Hill with Colonel Orde Dobbie (a Social Services administrator), Eddy Stride (a former shop-steward and trade-unionist, and now a vicar), Gordon Landreth (general secretary of the Evangelical Alliance), Nigel Goodwin (a professional Christian actor) and Steve Stevens (a missionary aviator). Additional input was received from a larger Council of Reference which included well-known politicians, lawyers, doctors, trades unionists, bishops, ministers, and other public figures such as Dora Bryan and David Kossoff from the acting profession. The name “Nationwide Festival of Light” was suggested by Malcolm Muggeridge, and Prince Charles sent “every good wish for the success of the Festival.”

The movement had two expressed aims: to protest against “sexploitation” in the media and the arts, and to offer the teaching of Christ as the key to recovering moral stability in the nation. Some supporters naturally emphasized the first, and others the second. Plans were made for major public events, including the lighting of beacons on hilltops throughout the United Kingdom, and culminating in a massed march to a public rally in Trafalgar Square and an open-air concert of Christian music in Hyde Park.

The administrative task of enlisting the support of Christian churches and denominations throughout the UK was a colossal one, as indeed was the necessity for public relations with the press and the general public. The committee and many local volunteers were occupied with this throughout the first half of 1971. Then on 9th September, an initial rally was held in Westminster Central Hall. Here the exploitation of sex and violence in the entertainment industry was denounced, and the presence of a few hecklers added interest to the proceedings.

Around the country more than seventy regional rallies followed. In Bristol the cathedral was filled to capacity, largely in reaction to the opening of a “sex supermarket” in the city. A Nationwide Day of Prayer was observed on 19th September. Then on the night of 23rd September bonfires and torches were lit on hilltops throughout Britain. In Sheffield a calor gas flare was lit by Cliff Richard. Local authorities were generally co-operative, and individual opposition muted. There were probably about 300 such beacons, and approximately 100,000 people taking part in these local events.

Then on 25th September came the Trafalgar Square rally. By 2.30 pm ten thousand people had assembled, many having travelled by coach from distant parts of the UK. They found a platform and amplifying equipment in place and careful measures for crowd control. More than a dozen speakers took the microphone, among them Malcolm Muggeridge, Bill Davidson of the Salvation Army, and Mary Whitehouse.

A number of statements and proclamations were read out and received with applause by the crowd, calling passionately for a halt to the commercial exploitation of sex and violence. They warned that the positive values of love and respect for the individual and the family were under serious threat, and that once these were overthrown a safe and stable society could not long survive. They challenged the nation to recover the pure idealism of Christ, the Light of world, who taught that real love always wants what is best for others and defends the weak against exploitation by the corrupt. The speakers were of mixed ages, from many different walks of life. Some of the crowd heckled, but most cheered enthusiastically. Two thirds of those present were aged under twenty-five.

The Hyde park rally commenced at 4pm, where a number of Christian music groups proclaimed the same message. Among the performers were Cliff Richard, Dana and Graham Kendrick.

A Brief Critique

In the days that followed, newspaper reports were understandably mixed, in view of the fact that the newspapers themselves were under fire. Perhaps the warmest support came from Roman Catholic periodicals. Vast quantities of mail continued to pour in to the organisers’ office, but once they had recovered from the extraordinary and exhausting effort entailed in the public events, there seemed a large measure of uncertainty about the next stage, if any.

Within the movement itself there had always been diverse emphases and agendas. Those involved had frequently asked themselves whether the Festival of Light should have an overtly Christian identity, or alternatively seek a wider constituency embracing all who would oppose “moral pollution”. In the event it received support from many who had no initial Christian commitment, and some who were drawn to Christianity through the experience.

There was also uncertainty whether the intention of the organisers was to demand stricter censorship by law, or to seek a voluntary agreement on standards with the professional regulating bodies in the broadcasting and publishing industries, or simply to persuade individuals and families that they would benefit from opting out of a culture they could not control.

The Festival certainly stimulated much inter-denominational contact among evangelical Christians, and should be remembered, along with the Billy Graham campaigns, the Keswick Convention, and the university “Christian unions” as a significant expression of twentieth-century evangelical co-operation in the UK. Many Christians were indeed persuaded to shun violent and sexually explicit films, magazines and television programmes, and to prefer newspapers lacking salacious content. For a decade or more, evangelicals generally held to this position.

In the nation as a whole, however, the impact of the Festival was probably much less evident than its supporters had hoped. Commercial and political interests remained too powerful for any attempt at a stricter censorship to succeed, either by law or by voluntary agreement.

In 1971 the Nationwide Festival of Light warned the British people what would happen if the commercial exploitation of sex, violence and alcohol were not checked. Its voice went unheeded, and a generation later we are living with the consequences.

The NFL committee continued to meet and gradually evolved into a Christian organization under the name of Campaign for (CARE). The confrontational style of the original Festival of Light has been superceded by a more discreet range of intiatives assisting individuals who have suffered the consequences of moral and social breakdown in British society, and encouraging a measure of political engagement on some issues.

Quotations from some leaders of the movement

Bob Danvers Walker (TV personality): “This is the age when men with dirty minds and tongues flourish because up till now there has been no militancy against those degenerates who befoul every form of art.”

John Biggs Davidson (MP for Chigwell): “It is not so much a permissive society as a licentious, callous and cruel society… The Christian strives to imitate Christ who calls him to heroic purity.”

Frank Deeks (Dagenham shop steward): “We ordinary people have allowed, through apathy, our television sets to become sewers… Our churches (and may God forgive them) have often been compromising, hesitant and plain scared to give a lead.”

Trevor Huddleston (Anglican bishop): “For me the definition of pornography or obscenity is very simple. It is the abuse of what is made in the image and likeness of God for any end whatsoever.”

Salvation Army petition demonstrating “the strength of feeling in a large part of society against the commercialisation of sex in ways which ensure financial gain for the exploiters and the creation of false values in the lives of the exploited.”

Malcolm Muggeridge (journalist): “The purpose of the festival is that… the relatively few people who are responsible for this moral breakdown of our society will know that they are pitted against, not just a few reactionary people, but all the people in this country who still love this Light – the Light of the world.”

Sunday Telegraph: “In the Festival of Light the silent majority has found its voice.”

John Capon (newspaper editor): “The Nationwide Festival of Light began, as we have seen, with the vision of one man, who was prepared to act decisively on what he had seen.”

Bibliography

Capon, John: And There Was Light: The Story of the Nationwide Festival of Light (London, Lutterworth, 1972); ISBN 0 7188 1936 5

Links

http://www.care.org.uk/group/group.aspx?id=10607

http://christian.org.uk/pdfpublications/raymond_johnston.htm