For as this desert has come to town, let's remember it was
in another desert that another people struggled to accept
the enough of God's provision. Will we allow manna to
satisfy us, or allow our greed to blind us to the joy and
abundance awaiting us in a promised land where generosity and contentment reign?
bulk of the UKs foodbanks. He was joined in giving us
the depressing statistics by Matt Barlow from debt advice
charity Christians Against Poverty. But they also told
inspiring stories as well.
In fact, people from many streams and denominations
were represented – a real show of unity.
The beginning of something
Andy Walton
Christians on the Left is a political organisation. And
political organisations have their meetings in
Westminster, right? Or at least in
Holyrood,
Stormont or Cardiff. So why did
over a
hundred people find themselves
packed into a room at
Vauxhall Foodbank in
south London for the
Christians on the Left
Summit? Well, the
answer was to be
found in the kind
of people who
were there.
There was time to break into groups to discuss various
pressing issues, but the event was about action as well as
conversation. Those attending the summit had brought
donations and a large pile of groceries was gathered for
use by Vauxhall Foodbank. But as well as this example of
social action, we wanted to involve ourselves in social
justice. So, led by David Barclay from the Contextual
Theology Centre, we took part in a mass twitter action,
asking Communities Secretary Eric Pickles to
allow councils to decide whether betting
shops and payday lenders should be
allowed to open in their area.
Of course
there were
some of
the usual
suspects.
Inspiring
speeches from
David Lammy MP and
Stephen Timms MP were
met with warm applause.
But those attending the event weren’t just special
advisors, think tank researchers and party hacks. Instead,
the audience at the community launch of Christians on the
Left looked like the communities who are at the sharp end
of politics across the country. Uniting them all was a
desire to learn more about how their faith can play a
positive role in the politics of the British left.
I spoke to several people who had never been to a
political event before, youthworkers and church
employees who hadn’t previously considered themselves
party political had turned up and decided that now is the
time to get involved. You can see why – we heard that
there are now more than a thousand foodbank
distribution centres across the country – and more
planned. This statistic and one of the most moving
presentations of the evening came from Chris Mould, the
Chair of Trussell Trust – the organisation providing the
be
The
is alive and
activists. Watch this
People
around
the
country and
around the
world were
able to join the
Summit via
social media, and
many did. The most
exciting thing about
the Summit was that it
felt like the
ginning of
something.
spirit of Christian Socialism
well and reaching younger
space...