Church of England urges all Christians to vote in general election
The Church of England has urged all Christians in the UK to vote in the upcoming general election.
In a letter sent from the House of Bishops says it is every Christian’s “right and duty” to vote on 7 May, the Church said the UK needs “a new approach to political life that will change the political weather as decisively as did the administrations of 1945 and 1979”.
“The ideals that the Big Society stood for should not be consigned to the political dustbin,” the letter continues.
Despite not mentioning LGBT specifically, the letter speaks of a need for “diversity”, and “equality”.
It reads: “There is a deep contradiction in the attitudes of a society which celebrates equality in principle yet treats some people, especially the poor and vulnerable, as unwanted, unvalued and unnoticed. It is particularly counter-productive to denigrate those who are in need, because this undermines the wider social instinct to support one another in the community.”
The letter marks the fist time the Church has written to Christian voters in such a manner.
Speaking to PinkNews of the letter, the Bishop of Buckingham Dr Alan Wilson said: “I am delighted to read in the bishops’ letter that they are committed to equality as a value, as I was when I read the Archbishop of Canterbury’s words on inclusion and equality to Wall Street. I long for the day we in the church manage to join up the dots about equality. Our words will mean more as we engage with our own issues on the subject. One sign of this process biting will be the full acceptance of LGBT people as equals.”
