The Solemnity of St George is often treated with embarrassment by the English. Other nations rejoice in their patron saints, untroubled by the more fanciful elements in their vitae, but the English are too self-conscious, nowadays too serious, to make much of St George. (Yesterday's Budget will not have helped, of course.) True, the English flag will fly from hundreds of Anglican church towers (which makes a nice change from its usual place on the houses and cars of football fans) and the Society of St George will hold its customary dinner, graced by a lot of silver adorned with English roses; but it will be left to comparatively few to pray for the well-being of the English people and nation. What do we mean by praying for England and the English? We are surely not praying to become richer or more powerful or have some sort of international advantage over others. Rather, we are praying for Christian standards to inform our public and private lives, which is not inconsistent with Britain being a multi-cultural, multi-religious country. (I shall have lost our readers from overseas at this point, but essentially one can become British but has to be born English.) A truly Christian country would be a wonderful place in which to live whatever one's religious beliefs because charity, as St Paul says, is the one thing that can never hurt one's neighbour. The photo (see, we have listened!) shows a detail from a sanctuary lamp made when patriotism was less complicated and Catholicism more confident.