IT WILL be encouraging to those of all faiths to read the words of the Queen in her address to clergy at Lambeth Palace yesterday.

The Queen, Supreme Governor of the Anglican Church, said it was not the business of the established church simply to defend itself, but to defend the rights of all faiths.

By this we presume that she included all religions, including non- Christian ones, but especially Christian ones.

Her words came hard on the heels of those of Baroness Warsi, the country’s first Muslim cabinet minister, who spoke out earlier in the week against a militant secularism that aimed to push Christianity to the margins of our society.

In both cases there is some comfort for those who practise faiths of all kinds, but especially Christians. It seems to us that the secular establishment has no problem accepting that Muslims and others hold their religion at the centre of their lives, but seem vociferously anti- Christian.

We respect the rights of all, believers or non-believers, to hold their views, but we agree with Baroness Warsi that the feelings of Christians are being ‘sidelined, marginalised and downgraded in the public sphere’.

This shows a narrow-minded attitude by those writing the rule books of public life and a disrespect for one of the most basic of human rights.