My election prayer and manifesto
The Church of England communications squad has released a prayer for the nation at the time of the General Ballot, and it has not been well received.
I offer here a prayer I wrote for Christian broadcaster Trans World Radio, which they recorded and broadcast earlier in the week. There were three chief things on my listen in composing this prayer.
The get-go was to follow the Anglican 'Collect' practice (which is a good principle of all prayer) by locating our request within what we know of the character of God, expressed in an opening affidavit.
The second was to pray into a range of issues, not all of which have actually been on the agenda of the election. For example, every bit a culture we are out of kilter considering we take lost a vision of the God-given pattern of a day of residuum, and that has broad implications for our order.
The third was not to predetermine outcomes, but without being anodyne and lapsing into a kind of 'Dear God, make u.s.a. all overnice', which some official prayers take been in danger of doing.
God our Father, you teach us truth and telephone call usa to live lives of truth and integrity. We pray for all candidates and party leaders, that they volition speak truthfully, honestly and fairly as they make the example for their particular policies.
Lord Jesus, you came in humility, not to be served merely to serve and requite your life for us. We pray for all who aspire to positions of leadership in our nation, that you volition grant them true humility and a spirit of service in the cause of others.
Creator God, you continue to be at work in our earth, and are the source of our truthful rest. Requite u.s. a vision for the dignity of work, and then that we go a nation where all may utilize the gifts you take given to contribute to the common good, and all may savor residual from work.
Lord Jesus, you came to us with backbone and compassion, bringing healing, restoration and forgiveness. Grant to all our leaders compassion for the vulnerable—the homeless, the ill and the unborn—then that they fashion policies that bring security, health and wholeness of life.
Begetter God, we thank you for the gift of friends, families and neighbours. Assist united states to discern policies and strategies that will protect and strengthen family life and relationships in our communities, that nosotros might run into an finish to conflict and loneliness.
God of all the world, grant our leaders wisdom in thinking virtually policies on immigration, global trade and the surround. May we seek the good of all, and build relationships of common benefit, equally we act as practiced stewards of the gift of your creation.
Spirit of God, y'all have been poured out to brand united states of america wise and teach us the difference between what is good and right, and what is wrong and misleading. Give us true discernment in our thinking nigh our nation and our government. Guide all our conversations, our reflection and our decisions equally we cast our vote.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
If you like to use structured prayers written by others, then yous can try this alternative written past Michael Sadgrove, the prayer issued by the Methodist Church, or y'all could easily adapt into a prayer this helpful statement from Philip Mounstephen, bishop of Truro.
Ane of the struggles in this ballot, and something which many Christians are finding, is that none of the parties is really addressing problems that need dealing with to reform our nation and govern us wisely and so that we might live well. I was grateful for John Stevens' rebuke that, every bit Christians talk almost politics, nosotros too easily recollect that salvation will come to the states through government policy! But alongside that, we need to call back radically about the kind of social club God calls us to be to reverberate his concerns. If I were to write a manifesto, then information technology would include the following (in no particular order).
1. Balloter reform, which needs to include replacing our ineffective and polarising 'first past the post' organisation with a well-designed system of Single Transferable Vote. Only this volition let every vote to count, and will eliminate the need for parties to push button to the extremes in order to proceeds support.
ii. Changes in election do. Our electric current system cannot survive the complexities of our social media historic period. We need much stricter controls on elections spending (1 political party received every bit much in donations as all the others put together; this cannot be right), stronger accountability for those who spread simulated information, and a banning of opinion polls in the two weeks prior to the election.
3. Overall we need much better local government, with regional decisions devolved to regional government. Our politics is far also London-centred.
4. We urgently need prison reform. We have some of the highest rates of re-offending; repeated Government strategies of 'lock more people up' are roughshod and exercise not work; also many of our prisoners have mental wellness issues which need proper treatment, and besides many come from ethnic and religious minorities.
five. The shortage of housing and the cost of house-ownership is a scandal. Councils should be reinstated every bit business firm builders; there should be specific grants to adapt houses and then that the older generation can exist looked afterwards by members of their own family; we need reforms to the rental sector and so that life-long rental is not seen equally a second-class option; in that location need to be proper controls on foreign investment in housing, which at the moment pushes prices upwards and leaves properties empty.
6. In education we need to get away from the manufacturing model of 'added value', as though pupils were widgets going through an education factory. Nosotros demand to reduce the culture of over-examination, and carelessness the unmarried-track 'academic' route which does not meet the needs of many. We demand to reclaim the value of arts and crafts and practical skills, and provide appropriate routes to that. We should abandon the futile mantra of 'fifty% of schoolhouse leavers going to university', as information technology is a waste of time and money for the many who will enter non-graduate jobs, with debt, at the cease of their three years.
seven. We need to rediscover the importance of manufacturing. People and nations need to make things! We should exist investing in manufacturing infrastructure, and shift our corporate tax regime so that companies are rewarded for investment in found and in skills.
8. Overall, our taxation organisation needs radical simplification. Our current emphasis in indirect revenue enhancement means that the poorest in our nation actually pay a higher proportion of their earnings in revenue enhancement than the wealthiest. We should have a single, simple tax system, and shift revenue enhancement from indirect to direct forms.
9. Our healthcare system needs a radical review, and this can only exist washed if it is depoliticised, so that it ceases to be an election football, and nosotros make an honest evaluation of other systems around the world, particularly those that piece of work well in other parts of Europe. Decision-making needs to exist given back to healthcare professionals, rather then being left to managers or politicians.
x. We should appoint in a long-term process of retooling our arms manufacturers so that they movement into other areas of manufacture. We are ane of the largest arms exporters in the world—and to our shame, as our weapons are widely used by oppressive regimes, and the arming of the earth fuels global conflict.
I would like to see our church leaders speaking out more than virtually such radical ideas, since they all seem to me to exist based in historic Christian thinking well-nigh society, are all supported by practical arguments virtually welfare and well being, and at that place are good examples of all being put into practice.
What manifesto issues would you lot like to add together? Tell me in the comments.
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