Later this evening I’m off to Amersham Common Village Hall
to vote in the first December election since 1923! I’ll probably not wait up to hear the result,
due in the early hours of tomorrow morning.
I did attend a local Hustings, organised by the churches of Amersham on the Hill, last Saturday. Many ‘activists’ from the community attended and although the four candidates all spoke with mutual respect the same, alas, could not be said of the audience. The tone of many of the questions and the reactions of the majority to the answers offered by the platform party bordered on ‘thug-ish’. I was deeply disappointed as I left to think that the democratic ‘process’ had sunk to such a low level.
I’m reminded on a day such as this of the efforts of the minister of Westbourne Park Baptist Church, Paddington, at the turn of the 20th century. The Revd John Clifford was also an activist and unashamedly put his support behind the Liberal governments of Asquith and Lloyd George. In the early 1900’s most non-conformists would have automatically voted Liberal even as most Anglicans would have Tory!
Every week the Baptist Times used to carry a
front-page article outlining the activities of Parliament as chronicled by a
Baptist MP – amazing to think that the Free Church Grouping of MPs in the
Commons in those days numbered just under a hundred!I did attend a local Hustings, organised by the churches of Amersham on the Hill, last Saturday. Many ‘activists’ from the community attended and although the four candidates all spoke with mutual respect the same, alas, could not be said of the audience. The tone of many of the questions and the reactions of the majority to the answers offered by the platform party bordered on ‘thug-ish’. I was deeply disappointed as I left to think that the democratic ‘process’ had sunk to such a low level.
I’m reminded on a day such as this of the efforts of the minister of Westbourne Park Baptist Church, Paddington, at the turn of the 20th century. The Revd John Clifford was also an activist and unashamedly put his support behind the Liberal governments of Asquith and Lloyd George. In the early 1900’s most non-conformists would have automatically voted Liberal even as most Anglicans would have Tory!
The Revd Dr John Clifford really did believe that the social reforms of Lloyd George, including the introduction of the Old Age Pension in 1907, were evidence of the manifestation of the Kingdom of God.
A hundred years on and the world seems a much more complex place – and I, for one, would never feel comfortable bringing party politics into a sermon, let alone declare publicly in church my position on Brexit!
My prayer today is that those elected tonight will be able to sit in the Commons from Tuesday onwards and ‘collectively’ work together for the good of the country in these difficult days.
Alas, gone are the days when my predecessors would instinctively and automatically have voted for Lloyd George for no other reason than that his background of growing up was that of being a Welsh Baptist!
Ian
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