Church leaders meet with their MP: an encouraging collaboration

As we know, the 2024 general election brought huge political change, with a considerable proportion of MPs being new to office. As an advocacy team we have been connecting with many of the new MPs in different ways. Over the last few months, we have connected member churches with MPs in Scotland, Northeast England and the Midlands. These have been fruitful meetings where church leaders have come together to share about the ways their churches serve their communities. 

At the beginning of June, James Asser (Labour MP for West Ham and Beckton) met with evangelical church leaders from his constituency. Mr Asser is one of the new parliamentary intake and is keen to connect with faith leaders. The Evangelical Alliance were able to connect him with evangelical churches and Christians in the community that he serves and advocates for, acknowledging the worth in listening to their perspective and experiences. 

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Our team invited church leaders in the area to come and share encouragements from their churches and ways they are serving those in the community. RCCG Royal Connections Custom House kindly hosted the event, and it was a brilliant meeting. 

Each church leader had the opportunity to share the different ways their church serves the vulnerable, for example, through their foodbank or ministry to provide for vulnerable women and children. The leaders were also able to share the challenges facing their churches, with many citing the need for a permanent church building to better meet community needs and inconsistent communication from the local authority. James Asser was able to empathise, offering advice from his years working as a councillor and from supporting other faith groups over the last year. 

Mr Asser shared his priorities to improve access to further education for children and young people leaving school and not going to university and spoke about how he would like to collaborate more with churches on this. There was a particularly encouraging moment of collaboration as his team encouraged the church leaders to pass on names of those they were unable to help and vice versa. The atmosphere in the room was warm, with everyone engaged and attentive to what was being shared. 

Pastor Tony Fawole from RCCG Royal Connections summed up his reflections of the morning:

“It was a productive meeting filled with profound reflections and progressive decisions that will help pave the way for meaningful accomplishments with all the stakeholders in Newham.”

If you would like to connect with other churches in your area and meet with your MP, please contact the advocacy team at: advocacy@​eauk.​org. We would love to serve our membership by helping you form better relationships with your local MP. Churches are such important parts of communities and serve both Christians and those of other or no faiths. 

Our Connect resource also offers tips and ideas to help you get in touch with your MP and to start building a relationship with them.