There’s an untold story concerning the elections we’ve just had across England – and possibly about every election that ever gets held anywhere. It’s a story that matters just as much because the election results.
It’s the variety of people who find themselves willing to present up their time and energies to face for elected office. Plus doing all of the canvassing, leaflet-delivering and diverse other behind-the-scenes chores to attempt to win voters over.
I’m all the time amazed, and grateful to the boys and girls willing to face for election, for all parties, when most of them will fail on the ballot box.
The ones I do know aren’t power-hungry despots or people wanting to amass a fortune – within the UK, local councillors aren’t paid a salary, and only receive an allowance – and so they don’t see the role as a way simply to boost their public profile.
The overwhelming majority stand for election because they think they’ll make their local area a greater place, using their insights and skills. Voters can resolve in the event that they, or the party they represent, have the best ideas – and so they can vote them out, in the event that they fall in need of the mark. That’s democracy in motion.
In church, we pray for our leaders in each central and native government. We pray that they are going to act justly, with integrity and for the common good. And meaning remembering those on the margins of our society who can often be ignored.
Many Christians decide to serve others by standing for election, or working in local government, and I applaud them.
Local elections can sometimes be viewed as unimportant, about potholes quite than proper politics. But the local really matters. What happens on our doorsteps impacts us greater than events internationally.
Churches are rooted in local communities, searching for to enhance, to bless the areas where we’re based. The Church of England divides up the country into 13,000 parishes so every house is ‘covered’ by a neighborhood church. The CofE’s strapline is ‘A Christian presence in every community.’
So Christians are called to be committed, to be concerned, to be involved in and pray for the thriving of our local areas. That’s why many churches run services starting from debt counselling to toddler-and-carer groups, drop-ins for older people, bereavement groups and diverse other social activities – along with our core roles of outreach and of providing regular Christian services, including baptisms, weddings and funerals.
People could also be cynical about politicians, and skeptical concerning the motives of men and women standing for elected office. But generally, I would like to thank God for them, and pray they’ll do their best to make the world – or at the very least each of our small corners of it – a greater place. I wish them well within the challenges they are going to face.Rev Peter Crumpler is a Church of England minister in St Albans, north of London, UK, and a former communications director with the CofE.
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