From the Rector

Dear Everybody, hello again.

I heard a comment on the radio recently that said that your vote really does matter.  Admittedly, until we get proportional representation, each individual vote won’t make a difference.  And we all suspect that if you live in a marginal constituency, your opinions count for more with central politicians than they do if you live in a safe seat.

But this comment was that, it is the type of voter you are that matters.  This is because of analysis of profiles of actual voters.  If, as currently happens, about three times as many sixty-year-olds vote as do twenty-year-olds, then politicians will want to please the sixty-year-olds.  The implication is, that if you don’t vote, the interests of your age-group will be damaged. 

A recent poll on religious faith indicated that 43% of teenagers say they have no religion or faith, compared to 20% of those in their 20s and 8% of those over 65.  I wonder if the two are connected.  Do the young believe less in anything, whether God or politicians?  And does this mean that they feel less as though they belong?

All young people want to become individuals, to find out who they are.  But unless you become a mega-star – and not many people can do that, by definition – you’re not as powerful as an individual as when you are the member of a group.  If we have taught the young that collective action is not effective, we have done them a disservice.

Christians join together in worship for support, strength, and to be more effective.  And in all our daily lives locally, there are environmental and other campaigns where each extra voice, each extra signature is of importance.  Each time we make a positive vote with our feet, with our voice, with our name, we show that we belong.  To belong to a group makes you no less of an individual.

God bless you                                       David Head