PRAY . . . and participate. This was the Archbishops’ injunction after the Prime Minister announced that the country would go to the polls on 4 July.
On Wednesday afternoon, just minutes after Rishi Sunak announced the General Election, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York released a press release inviting people to wish for the nation, and to “take into consideration how all of us can play our part each as voters and, more broadly, as residents”.
“It is a time for us all — people of all faiths and of none — to ask necessary questions on what type of country we wish to be,” they said.
“We are facing epic challenges each in our country and our world: from questions of war and peace, to poverty and injustice and really way forward for the Earth God has given us.
“Faced with such huge questions, our instinct as Christians is to show to God in prayer and so we wish to place prayer on the very heart of this campaign.”
In a pre-recorded video, Archbishop Cottrell said he hoped that folks would vote, and that Christians would place their vote “based on what’s going to be best for God’s world”.
Church House will likely be releasing prayer materials through the campaign, under the banner #PrayYourPart.
The statement from the Archbishops included a plea for the run-up to the election to be “marked by respect for each other, for good grace and a commitment to truth and integrity”.
The Archbishop of Wales, the Most Revd Andrew John, echoed their call for civility, and urged “everyone to make full use of our democratic freedoms and to participate within the debates and the selections that are before us”.
