Girl Guide Christians give in to secular oath

A group of Christian Girl Guides who refused to drop God from their traditional oath have bowed to pressure and agreed to use the new secular promise, despite more than 800 complaints about the oath from Guide members across the country.

Jem Henderson and Hazel Mitford

Guide leaders from Harrogate, North Yorkshire, announced publicly that they would keep the old oath after the UK-wide organisation demanded in June that all Guides abandon any reference to God in their promise.

But the St Paul’s Harrogate troop has now agreed to use the new secular oath, following a meeting with Girlguiding UK last week.

Girlguiding UK said the organisation had received 839 complaints about the new oath, but said that all members must use the secular promise after September 1.

Chief Guide Gill Slocombe said: “We appreciate that for some it is going to take time to make the adjustment.

"Whilst all leaders will need to accept this change as we go forward, we will be talking with leaders who are anxious and working with them to help resolve any difficulties. We sincerely hope it won’t be necessary for anybody to leave the organisation.”

Ms Slocombe said the response had been "overwhelmingly positive" and the 839 complaints from members "is significantly less than 1 per cent of our membership, at just 0.15%.”

Jem Henderson, 28, an atheist volunteer leader who previously accused Harrogate troop of excluding non-believers, said she was now prepared to become a leader in the area.

She said: “Definitely [it was worth it], standing up for atheist young women out there who want to join the girl guides.

“That’s all I wanted out of it was for the troops to take the secular promise.”

Ms Henderson said she didn’t expect any difficulties from working with the Harrogate Guide leaders with whom she publicly disagreed.

She said: “I think it will be fine. I mean, they’re Christians, therefore they’re capable of turning the other cheek.”

Ms Henderson, a blogger and copywriter, said the number of Girl Guides should increase under the secular oath and that new young leaders would make Guides "more exciting".

She said: “My friends and people around me are very proud of me for standing up for what I believe in.

“I think it’s more important that all girls get included in Guides than just the ones that have religious affiliation.

“It’s a new oath, and more leaders that are younger and perhaps less stuck in their ways should make Guiding more exciting for people that want to join that don’t just want to go and sit in a church hall with women who are older than their mothers talking about whatever it is they’re talking about.”

Hazel Mitford, who runs the Harrogate Guide group, refused to state whether her group would now use the new or traditional promise, but said the Guiding was “girl-lead”.

She said: “It’s for the girls to decide what they choose to do.

“Girlguiding is saying, “Yes they will make the new promise”, but the way that the girls explore their own spiritual journey is up to them, it’s not dictated by anybody else really.”