Welcome to Impact Direct, your regular update on all things UK politics. Over the next few weeks, our main focus will be on the general election.

This week, CARE launched a bespoke website dedicated to equipping Christians to engage with the 2024 General Election: engage24.org.uk. Below are just a few highlights from the catalogue of resources at your fingertips!  

Take a look at our topic primers packed full of Biblical teaching to help you prayerfully consider your own position on these complex issues. Explore them below.

Keep up to speed with developments on the campaign trail and find thoughtful writing on Christian engagement in politics below.

Also in the News

Here’s your roundup of what else is happening in the public square:  

As you no doubt will have seen, the Prime Minister has called the next General Election for Thursday 4 July.

Over the next six weeks, the political parties will be setting out their key election messages and publishing their manifestos.

This is a huge opportunity for Christians to be salt and light by engaging with this election. What an immense opportunity, and what a privilege it is to live in a democracy!

At CARE, we’ve been preparing for this moment for a long time.

I’m delighted to let you know that tomorrow evening, exactly six weeks out from polling day, we will launch our exclusive election website, engaGE24!

It is packed with content designed to help you engage well with this election. You’ll find:

• a policy quiz, to help you investigate who you most align with
• a bespoke prayer diary, covering 40 days around the election
• policy primers – covering education, healthcare, environment, immigration, economy and much more!
• blogs covering all the big questions you might have this election time
• exclusive interviews with Christian MPs, including Miriam Cates and Tim Farron
• videos you can play in your church about how to vote and why you should vote
• our engaGE24 podcast

And much more! Plus we’ll be providing a Christian analysis of the manifestos when they are published.

The build up to this election has been a long time coming. Please join me in praying over the next six weeks.

As we read in 1 Timothy 2:1-2: “I want people everywhere to pray for Kings and all those in authority…”

What a joy it is to know that over all of our politics, Jesus is King! Let’s pray that God raises up new Christian MPs who will be salt and light across Westminster.

Look out for my email tomorrow which will officially launch our new engaGE24 website, and please forward it onto your friends, family, church leaders and whoever might find it helpful!

Every blessing,

Ross Hendry
CEO of CARE

 

Hello Friend
 

Yesterday evening, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the date of the General Election as 4 July. It took commentators by surprise, and the next few weeks will be full of economic and political analysis.
Most people reading this Newsletter will be citizens, with a vote. We’ll inform ourselves about the issues, as everyone should. But we’ll also be asking ourselves deeper questions. We’re facing enormous challenges as a country. As well as praying for the candidates and for our national future, how do we bring our faith to bear on this election? How do we use the Bible to reflect on how we should vote?
 

Watch the video →

Bible Society has teamed up with Christians in Politics (CiP) to create Bible-based resources to help Christians think through the issues, under the banner Britain and the Bible. We’ll be adding to these over the next couple of weeks, but right now we have a booklet by CiP Executive Director Andy Flannagan, 66 Politics – free to download – and a video narrated by Andy that’s ideal for playing in churches. 

Download your free resources →

Let’s pray for all those involved in campaigning during the next few weeks, that they’ll speak and act with grace, truth and respect, and that Christians will engage with the issues that mean so much to all of us. 
As the inscription (in Latin) on the stone floor of Parliament’s Central Lobby says: ‘Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labour in vain’ (Psalm 127.1). 
James Howard-Smith
Newsletter Editor

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