Church and Politics

New unit plans to join parties

by Bill Bowder

Party conferences are this year being targeted by church groups, keen to get their message across. The Conservative Party meets in Manchester from 5 to 8 October. Man chester diocese will set up a stall “to help shape the political agenda”, said Martin Miller, the diocese’s acting assistant chief executive. Church Action on Poverty said it would be present at the three main confer ences; and, for the first time, the Church of England’s new Parli ament ary Unit will also attend. The presence of the new unit was wel comed by the Methodist Church, and by the official Christian groups within the Conservative, Labour, and Liberal Democrat parties. Paul Morrison, a one-time Lib eral Democrat parliamentary can did ate, now policy adviser for the Methodist Church, said that the unit was “very professional”. “Party conferences are a great place to build contacts. If you have a parliamentary office, then it would be madness not to be at the con ferences. “Politicians are open to big ideas from anyone — if they coincide with their intentions and are deliverable. Most politicians came into politics because they wanted to make things better.” The Methodists, along with the Baptist, United Reformed Church, and the Salvation Army, had been repre sented in last week’s TUC confer ence. “People were surprised to see a dog collar there,” Mr Morrison said. “I don’t think there is a conscious effort to be more overt about politics, but as the Churches become more professional and more com petent, so there will be more respect for what they are doing.” The political issues the Churches wanted addressed in common were: “international development, vulner able workers, and poverty in the UK”, Mr Morrison said. Richard Chapman, the head of the parliamentary unit, and a one-time adviser to the Labour Party in Parliament, said that the unit’s purpose was “to further the en gage ment of the Church of England with the political process and the political world. . . Being at conference is a good networking opportunity.” Elizabeth Berridge, director of the Conservative Christian Fellowship said that, to many politicians, “The Churches are not seen as significant in electoral terms. Churchpeople should let them know what is out there, with churches with five services on a Sunday and engage ment in urban life.” The new unit needed to do more than just make “institution-to- insti tution contact”, she said. It needed to encourage wider engage ment. “Churchpeople should get involved with public life. A lot have an engagement with lobbying groups, but they also need to be decision-makers, and encourage people to join political parties.” Zoe Dixon, the new director of the Liberal Democrat Christian Forum, also welcomed the unit’s presence at the conferences: “The more the merrier. We want to get across the message that the Church is not an eccentric fringe.” A spokeswoman for the Christian Socialist Movement said that she had not heard of the Parliamentary Unit.