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For those of us finding it difficult to hear God’s still small voice in the orchestra of political sound bites there are a number of valuable websites available to help our intercessions in the final lap of the election race. (hustings) documents a summary of the local husting meetings held in the past few weeks. (2) The Care General Election Prayer Guide can be downloaded from Prayer Forum (3) Initiatives and suggestions from Christians in Politics can be downloaded at Susa (4) A concise election twelve point prayer plan is on the World Prayer Centre website (5) 24-7 Prayer offer an election prayer meeting plan that can be downloaded from EAUK (6) Information concerning the Christian Peoples Alliance candidates and speeches are at (7) This week's Insight article is a scripture based prayer pointer distributed through the Parliamentary Prayer Fellowship. Click the 'info' button.
Pray: as the Lord leads into areas of government and the election process. (1Ti.2:1-2)
The Archbishop of Canterbury preached at a Service for the New Parliament at St Margaret's Church, Westminster Abbey. Used the words of Jesus ‘Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar’, he said. ‘You may or may not as an individual share the perspective of faith; but in the difficult years ahead it will be worth remembering that giving God what belongs to God is something that is not a matter of dry and unwelcome duty but a release of human possibilities that we all need to witness and in some degree to share. May this Parliament mark a new level of enthusiasm and imagination around the call to honour God-given dignities by creating strong citizens of our nation and of the world; May the work of our elected leaders be for the sake of gathering and not scattering and may the divine image in men and women, recognised or unrecognised, be the vision that directs us towards a fresh political energy and moral vision.’ Pray: for the Government and Opposition that they will honour God in their work for this nation. (1Ki.3:9)
The Archbishop of York has urged David Cameron to tackle the ‘great injustice’ of care for the elderly, warning we risk growing into a ‘sick society’ if there are no improvements in the way vulnerable pensioners are treated. Speaking out in support of the Daily Mail’s Dignity for the Elderly Campaign, Dr John Sentamu said it was wrong that tens of thousands of pensioners are being forced to sell their homes to pay for care which is often less than adequate. He said the Government has reached a ‘moral crossroads’ and must decide whether to build a society that supports the vulnerable or ‘one where individuals face whatever life throws at them on their own’. In a separate intervention, the former Liberal Democrat care minister Paul Burstow also challenged Mr Cameron to act quickly to fix the ‘broken system’ amid signs that the Government is planning to delay introducing a cap on the cost of care.
Pray: for the elderly and especially those who are most vulnerable and in need of a well-planned system of care and support. (Ps.71:18)
More: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2221184/Sentamu-moral-crossroads-care-elderly-sick-society-improvements.html
Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, has warned against forcing vicars to conduct same-sex civil partnerships as the Coalition prepares to grant full marriage rights to homosexual couples. Some critics fear the reforms could pave the way for legal challenges that would force vicars to conduct homosexual ‘wedding’ ceremonies against their will. Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, told BBC One’s Andrew Marr show ‘I live in a liberal democracy and I want equality for everybody. I cannot say the Quakers shouldn’t do it. ‘Nor do I want somebody to tell me the Church of England must do it or the Roman Catholic Church must do it because actually that is not what equality is about.’ Stephen Parkinson, director of Forward in Faith, a traditionalist Anglican movement, said: ‘It is a matter for the Christian churches to order their own affairs. Her Majesty’s Government has no place interfering.’ Pray: for the Church to retain is own jurisdiction on such matters. (Ro.7:22)
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Dr John Sentamu, the second most senior cleric in the Church of England, tells Ministers they should not overrule the Bible and tradition by allowing same-sex marriage. The Archbishop says it is not the role of the state to redefine marriage, threatening a new row between the Church and state just days after bishops in the House of Lords led a successful rebellion over plans to cap benefits. ‘Marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman,’ says Dr Sentamu. ‘I don’t think it is the role of the state to re-define what marriage is. It is set in tradition and history and you can’t just change it overnight, no matter how powerful you are.
Pray: for the Government to listen to and respect the views of the Church and other religious groups when considering this matter. (Ps.85:8)
The Archbishop of York has challenged politicians to put their money where their mouths are and make the living wage a reality. Dr John Sentamu has just taken up his new appointment as chair of the Living Wage Commission, which will spend the next 12 months looking at how the living wage can be implemented. Writing in The Observer at the weekend, he said it was a ‘national scandal’ that five million people in Britain are not being paid enough to live on. ‘Millions of people across the country will get up today, leave their families and travel to work to carry out jobs that we all depend on,’ he wrote. ‘They will care for people, serve us food, clean the spaces that we all use and share. They will do more than a fair day's work, but they won't get a fair day's pay.’
Pray: that a living wage for a fair day's work will become the norm and not something that leaves people with less than enough. (Dan.9:17)
More: http://www.christiantoday.com/article/sentamu.attacks.scandal.of.low.wages/33295.htm
The Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, the Rt Rev John Packer, warned that the rules would allow developments when councils had not set out local plans, which would make clear where building can take place. His intervention is the first time that a senior cleric has entered the dispute over the Government’s National Planning Policy Framework. The framework distils 1,300 pages of planning guidance into as few as 52, and writes in a ‘presumption in favour of sustainable development’. Groups including the National Trust fear this will allow developers to build on large parts of the countryside. The bishop criticised the draft rules during a House of Lords debate. He said: ‘Just because no one has thought about a proposal before does not mean that it should automatically be granted. A default answer of 'yes’ seems to be dangerous in legislation and could well lead to problems in, for example, the proper provision of affordable housing.’
Pray: for the Government to build in safeguards to address the concerns of many who seek to protect townscapes and countryside. (Ps.72:3)
Five men are being held under the Terrorism Act after being arrested close to the Sellafield nuclear site. The men, who are all from London and in their 20s, were arrested on Monday shortly after 1630 BST. The arrests were made after Civil Nuclear Constabulary officers conducted a stop check on a vehicle close to the Sellafield site, in Cumbria. The BBC understands the men were taking photographs and are all believed to be Bangladeshi. The arrests are not thought to have been intelligence-led. The men were held in Carlisle overnight and then moved to Manchester. Four houses in east London were raided by counter-terror detectives as part of the investigation. The arrests were made within hours of the news breaking that Osama Bin Laden had been killed in Pakistan. Pray: that the authorities will remain vigilant amid fears of reprisals from groups sympathetic to al-Qaeda. (Eph.5:15)
The National Secular Society has written to Bideford Council to say that its prayers at council meetings are ‘illegal’. It has threatened the council with a judicial review unless it stops the prayers and hopes the action will "set a precedent that will affect the many other councils that have prayers as part of their agenda", the NSS said on its website. The NSS has decided to take action in response to a complaint from local councillor Clive Bone, whose motions to remove prayers from meeting agendas have failed. The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey told the Guardian: ‘The centuries-long tradition of saying of prayers before council meetings is simply an acknowledgment of the important role the Christian faith plays in civic life. The attempt to rule such prayers as discriminatory is an attack on freedom and a cynical manoeuvre to drive public expressions of faith from national as well as local life’. (See also praise item)
Pray: against these attacks upon our Christian roots.(2Ti.4:18)
More:http://www.christiantoday.com/article/secularists.says.council.meeting.prayers.are.illegal/25929.htm
Bishops in the Church of England are resisting calls from a secular campaign group to ban the use of NHS money to fund hospital chaplains. The National Secular Society (NSS) argue that the NHS is spending ‘millions of pounds a year’ on chaplains, and that public funds could be better spent on alternative health care services which were ‘non-discriminatory’. However, in a debate at the church’s General Synod this week, Rt Rev Mike Hill, the Bishop of Bristol, said that ‘every effort’ must be made to preserve the role of chaplains in the NHS to ensure that ill patients were offered full, comprehensive care.
‘As with much in life, the true value of our chaplains might only be appreciated if they were no longer present,’ he said. ‘Every effort ought to be made, and is being made, to resist secularist calls for chaplains to be excluded from the NHS.’
Pray: for our church leaders to stand up against the secular and humanist organisations who are attacking our Christian values. (Jude.1:3-4)
More: http://www.christianconcern.com/our-concerns/social/secularists-lobby-to-remove-nhs-chaplains