10 May 2025
Rev Peter Crumpler, associate minister at St Paul’s Church in Fleetville, explains why he’s grateful for the commitment of every candidate in our local elections…
There’s an untold story about the elections we have just had in St Albans, Hertfordshire and across the country – and maybe about every election that ever gets held.
It’s the number of people who are willing to give up their time and energies to stand for elected office. Plus doing all the canvassing, leaflet-delivering and numerous other behind-the-scenes chores to try and win voters over.
I’m always amazed – and grateful – to the men and women willing to stand for election, for all parties, when most of them will fail at the ballot box.
The ones I know are not power-hungry despots or people wanting to amass a fortune – councilors aren’t paid a salary, and only receive an allowance – and don’t see the role as a way simply to raise their public profile.
The vast majority stand for election because they think they can make their local area a better place, using their insights and skills. Voters can decide if they, or the party they represent, have the right ideas – and they can vote them out, if they fall short of the mark. That’s democracy in action.
In church, we pray for our leaders in both central and local government. We pray that they will act justly, with integrity and for the common good. And that means remembering those at the margins of our society who can often overlooked.
Many people of faith choose to serve others by standing for election, or working in local government, and I applaud them.
Local elections can sometimes be viewed as unimportant, about potholes rather than proper politics. But the local really matters. What happens on our doorsteps impacts us more than events across the world.
Churches and other faith groups are rooted in local communities, seeking to improve, to bless the areas where we’re based. The Church of England divides up the country into 13,000 parishes so every home is ‘covered’ by a local church. The CofE’s strapline is ‘A Christian presence in every community.’
So Christians are called to be committed, to be concerned, to be involved in and pray for the thriving of our local areas. That’s why churches run services ranging from debt counseling to toddler-and-carer groups, drop-ins for older people, bereavement groups and numerous other social activities – in addition to our core role of providing regular Christian services, including christenings, weddings and funerals.
People may be cynical about politicians, and skeptical about the motives of women and men standing for elected office.
But generally, I want to thank God for them, and pray they’ll do their best to make the world – or at least our small corner of it – a better place. I wish them well in the challenges they will face.
