UCB broadcast September 2006
Hello and welcome to the Parliamentary prayer update, my name is Gareth Wallace and I work in Westminster for the Evangelical Alliance Public Affairs Department.
Summer might be over, but Parliament does not return to business until the 9th October. However the business of politics has already begun with the annual party conferences taking place for each of the major parties.
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrat party conference took place from the 15th until to the 21st of September in Brighton.
The Liberal Democrat Party’s Christian Fellowship is called the Liberal Democrat Christian Forum. They organised several events for the party conference as well as an excellent party conference service on the seafront with Brighton Salvation Army brass band.
More information on the LDCF
Labour
The Labour Party conference took place in Manchester from the 24th to the 28th of September. The Christian Socialist movement, the Labour party’s Christian fellowship played its usual prominent role including the Labour Party conference service on Sunday during which the Prime Minister conducted the gospel reading.
CSM also ran several excellent fringe events including contributions from Former Conservative Leader Ian Duncan Smith and a debate on slavery.
More information on CSM
Conservatives
The Conservative Conference is taking place in Bournemouth from the 1st to the 4th of October.
The Conservative leader David Cameron attended the Conservative Christian Fellowship service on Sunday the 1st of October.
As well as fringe events and prayer breakfasts throughout the week CCF hosted a event with Rt. Hon. William Hague MP and the Rev. Steve Chalke entitled Slavery: Do We Need a 21st Century Wilberforce?
Further details on CCF
Please pray for the work of the Christian groups in each of the political parties. They each ran a series of interesting and exciting events at their respective party conferences; pray that their influence will continue to grow and that Christian MP’s will be encouraged in their faith.
Please pray for Christian organisations such as Tearfund who are running fringe events at the conferences.
Pray that their events will have had an impact on the MP’s and ministers who take part.
Casino Advisory Panel
The Casino Advisory Panel has begun work on recommending where 17 new casinos will be built, including the UK’s first mega casino. We are encouraged that Brent Council in London has respected public opposition and scrapped its application for a mega casino at Wembley. We are also delighted that the London Borough of Wandsworth has already recommended applying a veto on any new casino proposals.
Please pray that the gambling industry will not put too much pressure on local authorities and communities to accept their often questionable version of ‘regeneration’ as the main rationale for a casino.
If a casino is being planned in your area please contact the Evangelical Alliance for help and information. The Evangelical Alliance has published a booklet entitled ‘Help there is a casino coming’.
Charities Bill
The new Charities Bill will probably become law by the middle of November.
For over four years the Evangelical Alliance has worked closely with the Government and the Charity Commission to minimise the burden of this legislation on churches and Christian groups and to ensure that the guidelines are appropriate.
The main implication for churches involves the concept of ‘public benefit’. In the past this has been assumed but in the future it will have to be demonstrated. The Alliance believes that demonstrating the benefit of religion to the public is not something that churches should be worried about. Every local church should be of benefit to the community it serves.
During the autumn the Alliance has been requested to work together with The Charity Commission to help frame a workable method for assessing and measuring religious public benefit.
Give thanks that the Government has been so attentive to the concerns of Christian groups with regard to the charity Bill.
Pray that churches and Christian charities will be encouraged to continue to play a key role at the heart of every community.
Further Prayer and Action
For further insights on these and other issues The Evangelical Alliance Public Affairs department produces a monthly parliamentary magazine, PQ, and a monthly ‘Prayer and Campaigns’ action and prayer sheet.
If you have any questions please e-mail the public affairs team at pub-aff@eauk.org
Gareth Wallace, Parliamentary Officer
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