MATURITY OF ASSOCIATION

Should Australia “grow up” and cut constitutional ties with Britain?

This debate was reignited recently when Governor-General Quentin Bryce suggested, at a Boyer Lecture she was giving, that Australia should one day evolve as a republic. Many felt that, as the Queen’s representative, this stance was highly inappropriate.

I guess I’ve always tended towards supporting the British monarchy because its heritage and rituals are firmly based in the Christian faith.  The wedding of Prince William to Catherine Middleton in 2011 was a profoundly Christian event, and the Queen, in her Christmas message that year, boldly proclaimed Jesus as both Saviour and Lord.

But it was something else in the Queen’s message that really got me thinking. She described the nations of the Commonwealth as a family. 

Republicans often use the argument that Australia has “grown up” and that independence from the English monarchy is a necessary and inevitable marker of our maturity as a nation. 

But adults still need family.  They still need relationship.  A mature adult, even more so than a child or adolescent, is able to appreciate the benefits of association. 

The church I belong to is fully autonomous in the sense that no-one interferes with how we run our internal affairs.  But we are part of a movement (CRC Churches International) that provides us with much encouragement and valuable resources.  We may also benefit in various ways from association with other networks of churches.

Maturity doesn’t mean severing relationships.  On the contrary, solid alignment with like-minded others, with whom we share both heritage and values, points to a healthy self-awareness and confidence.

An attitude of strict independence is not healthy, whether in the affairs of nations or in our personal lives.  Family, church, community, or a Commonwealth of nations, I believe that life is richer when we are part of something greater than ourselves. 

A generous attitude of interdependence, I suggest, is the way to go for Australia. Yes, managing our own affairs, and yes, electing our own Prime Minister and appointing Australians to the role of Governor-General, but not breaking with the family of nations that has nurtured us through infancy and adolescence.

(Note: this is a slightly updated version of my article in the Reflections column in The Stardard, Warrnambool, March 2012.)