Our General Election campaign was off to a flying start. After the recent problems, many candidates probably feel that they now have something to prove.
We could possibly arrange a hustings, a forum for the candidates, but Churches Together in Wakefield's small area is still divided between three different constituencies.
Our members would ask different questions, but some are these: questions abo
ut the widening gap between rich and poor, our participation in the "war on terrorism" now in Afghanistan, threats to religious freedom in the name of "equality," and the the ethics of life, whether it be approaches to healthcare, the care of the elderly and dying or the treatment of the unborn. We could go on to looking for some way of bringing our financial industries into some sort of framework where risk and short-term results do not rule, but this brings us to the word "virtue," discussed brilliantly by the Bishop Of Durham, Tom Wright, in his recent book Virtue Reborn where he looks for a new creation, a renewal in Christians, flowing from Christ's Resurrection.
The Catholic Bishops have also published a document Choosing the Common Good for the election, focussing on 'virtue' too. Virtues "form us as moral agents, so that we do what is right and honourable for no other reason than that it is right and honourable, irrespective of reward and regardless of what we are legally obliged to do…" – but have we now had to replace virtue with regulation? "What good thing must I do?" begins Bishop Tom Wright's book: it is all our candidates' beginning, too.
Nick Shields
Secretary Churches Together in Wakefield
Our Walk of Witness and United Service on Good Friday attracted several hundred people. The story (plus photo links) is on the Churches Together website at www.wdco.org/site/Churches-Together-in-Wakefield
Pilgrim's Progress is edited by Nick Shields
