FORMER Bishop of Oxford Lord Harries and other church leaders seem more interested in promoting the ideology of the EU than in Christianity, the religion they profess to represent (Ex-bishop joins call to stay in EU, June 1).

Our nation's culture, our constitution and our legal system are based on Christian precepts. Our modern democracy has taken hundreds of years to develop, in often painful steps, and people today, especially the young, tend to take for granted the freedoms we have. 

We still have the motto "Dieu et mon droit", meaning, in effect, that the Monarch rules through acknowledging God as the ultimate ruler.

By contrast, the EU is secular and actually anti-Christian. When the European Constitution was drawn up any reference to God was deliberately omitted; instead it was termed by ex-President Giscard D'Estaing "the completion of the French Revolution", which put human reason first.

Looking at the state of Europe today it is clear that human reason has a lot to answer for.

The EU school diary for 2011 marked all religious festivals except Christian ones - no Christmas, no Easter. 

When people objected, the answer was that next year there would be no religious festivals marked at all.

Britain's EU Referendum is a critical moment in our history, and therefore I propose that the Sunday immediately before it, June 19, should be a National Day of Prayer for the salvation of our country. 

The last time we had such Days of Prayer was in World War Two before Dunkirk, during the Battle of Britain and before El Alamein. 

I suggest Britain faces as grave a situation now as she did then.

STEPHEN NASH
Washington Terrace, Middle Barton