The common values which still hold our society together pop up in unexpected places. I had a rare Sunday off and was able to attend the Hop Farm Festival headlined by Neil Young.

I have been a Neil Young fan since the 1960s and had never seen him perform live. So with thousands of others I stood in a field for 12 hours to see one of my great musical heroes and was not disappointed; he was superb.

I wish I had his energy now that I’ve got to his age! I enjoyed all of the other acts and it reminded me of the three days I spent in a field on the Isle of Wight, watching Jimi Hendrix’s last performance, and dozens of other bands.

I say ‘stood’ in the field because it rained for the first four hours of the show and the ground was too wet to sit on.

By the time it was dry we were too closely packed for anyone to sit down. But what struck me was the behaviour of the crowd.

This was an all age crowd: oldies like me, family groups, young adults, children under 12 admitted free. People were patient, good humoured, determined to make the best of the day.

Someone kept an eye on my bag when I needed a loo stop but did not want to lose my place near the front. All the British qualities of goodwill, tolerance and mutual concern were evident in large quantities.

We were there on a Sunday and I guess the vast majority of people who were there would not have given a second thought to going to church. Even I was having a day off (not a day off God but a day off taking church services).

I want to suggest the values which were instinctive to most of the crowd at the Hop Farm, at Glastonbury, at Radio One’s big day in Maidstone, did not appear by chance.

Sure there were some distinctively British moments – who else would stand in the rain for four hours and not really complain?

But the values of mutual concern and respect did not drop out of the sky. They were formed over centuries, primarily through the impact of the Christian faith, which has shaped British culture more than all other influences put together.

‘Love your neighbour as yourself’ was worked out in a field in Kent, even in the chaotic hours it took to get off the site at the end of the concert.

Those values now require us to be a respectful, loving multicultural society, but they are fruit of the Christian tree, and if we do not attend to the tree, there might not be a lot more fruit.