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Tuesday 14 April 2015

Towards a Politics for the Common Good

Towards a Politics for the Common Good was a Pre-Election Debate at St Martin-in-the-Fields tonight.

In the run-up to the General Election a panel of eminent parliamentarians from different political parties and denominations discussed their approaches to key election issues in the light of Christian social and ethical teaching. They explored how we can, as we exercise our democratic right to vote, best serve the Christian principles we believe in. Is it possible to see the issues of our time through a different lens? Can we work together to cultivate a politics for the common good?

Rather than a hustings, the guest parliamentarians responded to questions posed by theologians Dr Sam Wells (St Martin-in-the-Fields) and Dr Anna Rowlands (Durham University), and audience members from all political persuasions. The event was organised by St Martin-in-the-Fields in partnership with Together for the Common Good:

"We need the associations and collaborations of civil society" Sam Wells

"Local churches are witnesses on the ground in every local community" Anna Rowlands

"The common good in a human fallible society faces the challenge of agreeing on what that is and how to achieve it." Dominic Grieve

"How do we cope with choice when we can't always decide what the common good is?" Alistair Burt

"We are hooked on home ownership in this country - makes solving housing problem harder." Alistair Burt

"The biggest challenge to common good is hyper individualism and Christians should care passionately about this." David Lammy

"It's hard to achieve common good in a culture of bad faith and there is lots of bad faith at the moment." David Lammy

"If we assume bad faith - common ground, is hard to achieve." David Lammy

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Bill Fay - Order Of The Day.

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