The House of Bishops has called on politicians to offer a disillusioned electorate a bigger vision of society in the run-up to May’s General Election.
In a pastoral letter to the members of the Church of England, released on Tuesday, the Bishops note how both the Labour government of 1945 and then the Thatcher government from 1979 “changed the political weather”. However, neither of these two transformative ideologies – either establishing a welfare state or freeing markets from state interference – is enough today, they say.
“Neither vision addresses our condition,” the Bishops write. “Placing excessive faith in state intervention on the one hand or the free market on the other” leads to a narrowing of ambition does not nurture the common good.
This is the first time the House of Bishops has released such a letter before an election. The letter, which is 126 paragraphs long, does not offer support to any party, but seeks to get Anglicans thinking about how best to use their vote on 7 May.
Read it all.
(Church Times) C of E Bishops’ call for vision provokes anger
The House of Bishops has called on politicians to offer a disillusioned electorate a bigger vision of society in the run-up to May’s General Election.
In a pastoral letter to the members of the Church of England, released on Tuesday, the Bishops note how both the Labour government of 1945 and then the Thatcher government from 1979 “changed the political weather”. However, neither of these two transformative ideologies – either establishing a welfare state or freeing markets from state interference – is enough today, they say.
“Neither vision addresses our condition,” the Bishops write. “Placing excessive faith in state intervention on the one hand or the free market on the other” leads to a narrowing of ambition does not nurture the common good.
This is the first time the House of Bishops has released such a letter before an election. The letter, which is 126 paragraphs long, does not offer support to any party, but seeks to get Anglicans thinking about how best to use their vote on 7 May.
Read it all.