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With fear and trembling’: Archbishop Fisher and the Suez Crisis
Andrew Connell
The publication of this volume of Crucible coincides with the seventieth anniversary of the Suez Crisis, the Anglo-French military operation to (re)gain control of the Suez Canal from Egypt. In Britain, Suez was possibly the single most divisive political episode between the Irish Home Rule crisis of 1912–1914 and Brexit in 2016. It divided religious as well as secular opinion, and it divided opinion in the Church of England as it did in other Churches. Perhaps surprisingly to some, in view of his rather conservative image then and now, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher, emerged as one of the most energetic critics of the Anglo-French intervention. This essay explores how Fisher presented a moral critique of the British Government’s actions. And while Fisher’s actions on Suez in 1956 may provide few direct lessons for us in the very different world of 2026, I would argue that they are worth remembering and, indeed, celebrating, as an example of a Christian stand for transparency and order in international affairs.
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