Mandy Catto

Last night saw the first televised British election debate. Today the media is filled with reactions, analysis and opinion polls. It certainly made for interesting viewing. At Activate we encourage you to pray for the election, make sure you are registered to vote,(the deadline is the 20th of April) and on May 6th -vote!


There is another way you might consider getting involved and making your voice heard now as a Christian –The Wesminster Declaration.

An interdenominational group encourages people to sign up to a statement of belief, the details are copied from their website for you here –

Protecting human life, protecting marriage, and protecting freedom of conscience are foundational for creating and maintaining strong families, caring communities and a just society. Our Christian faith compels us to speak and act in defence of all these.

Our beliefs and values
As Christians we reaffirm historic belief in God the Father (who created us and gave us the blueprint for our lives together); in God the Son Jesus Christ our Saviour (accepting his incarnation, teaching, claims, miracles, death, resurrection and return in judgment); and in God the Holy Spirit (who lives within us, guides us and gives us strength). We commit ourselves to worship, honour and obey God.

As UK citizens we affirm our Christian commitment both to exercise social responsibility in working for the common good and also to be subject to all governing authorities and obey them except when they require us to act unjustly.

Marriage
We pledge to support marriage – the lifelong covenantal union of one man and one woman as husband and wife. We believe it is divinely ordained, the only context for sexual intercourse, and the most important unit for sustaining the health, education, and welfare of all. We call on government to honour, promote and protect marriage and we refuse to submit to any edict forcing us to equate any other form of sexual partnership with marriage. We commit ourselves to continue affirming what we believe as Christians about sexual morality, marriage, and the family.


Conscience
We count it a special privilege to live in a democratic society where all citizens have the right to participate in the political process. We pledge to do what we can to ensure our laws are just and fair, particularly in protecting vulnerable people. We will seek to ensure that religious liberty and freedom of conscience are unequivocally protected against interference by the state and other threats, not only to individuals but also to institutions including families, charities, schools and religious communities. We will not be intimidated by any cultural or political power into silence or acquiescence and we will reject measures that seek to over-rule our Christian consciences or to restrict our freedoms to express Christian beliefs, or to worship and obey God.



Commitment
We call upon all those in UK positions of leadership, responsibility and influence to pledge to respect, uphold and protect the right of Christians to hold these beliefs and to act according to Christian conscience.


Over 22,000 people have now signed the Westminster 2010 Declaration. This is a very important opportunity to press home some of the issues that are important to Christian voters. We’d love to have 100,000 signatories before the general election.

Therefore, please:

· Sign the declaration at www.westminster2010.org.uk

· Download and print copies, take them to church and encourage others to sign, including church leaders.

· Contact your candidates and press them to pledge support – contact details for candidates in your constituency are available at www.yournextmp.com.

Key Signatories
•Lord Carey – Former Archbishop of Canterbury
•Cardinal O’Brien – Catholic Church in Scotland
•Michael Nazir-Ali – Former Bishop of Rochester •Steve Clifford – General Director, Evangelical Alliance
•Lyndon Bowring – Executive Chairman, CARE
•Paul Ashton – CEO, Prospects for People with Learning Disabilities
•Steve Brady – Principal, Moorlands College
•Julie Anderson – Founder, Prayer for the Nation
•Anita Cleverly – UK/European Director of ASK Prayer Network

Have you ever thought that one individual cannot acheive anything? If you have ever felt powerless then try watching this clip from India – I was moved to tears. Malcolm Duncan showed this clip at Spring Harvest, perhaps it will motivate you or maybe you could share it with someone else. If we can work together than we can acheive great things – and I would add that if we work together with God, then nothing is impossible!

Inviting your neighbours round for a pot of tea must be one of the easiest ways of reaching out and getting active! This June you can do this for a great cause as Open Doors invites people throuhout Britian to open their kitchens, gardens or halls for a tea party in support of persecuted Christians in Iran at some time between Friday 4th and Sunday 6th June. They have prepared a pack to get you motivated, which includes invites and a quiz, and will be delighted for any support, large or small gathering.
www.opendoorsuk.org/teaparty

Thank you to those of you who read about the Easter Sunday campaign and downloaded ‘History Maker’. The Easter campaign was a great success and the Delirious song acheived the fourth highest spot in the download charts. The song was played four times on prime-time Radio One and lots of media interest and interviews took place. Thousands of pounds were raised for Compassion art. Martin Smith, the lead singer of ‘Delirious’ issued the following statement –

I want to say thank you to all of you who bought or downloaded the song. And thank you to the remarkable individuals who came up with the idea in the first place and helped bring it to birth with such integrity, wisdom and skill. All of you – the planners and the facebookers and the downloaders – you’re all mad! Mad because you probably already own three copies of it, mad because you spent hard earned cash on a song that’s 15 years old and mad because you joined with others that you’ve never met to create a whole lot of noise about Jesus. But I love mad people, and I’m very proud to be a part of all your lives.

Look out for more campaigns in the future with www.invadetheairwaves.org.uk

Easter is coming and its time for more celebrations! My drive to bring celebrations into our home means Easter is going to be as big and important as Christmas! I know for many of my Christian friends Easter, like Christmas, has become too commercialised and secularised, consequently they don’t have the decorations and extravagance that now marks these events. I personally have decided to embrace this time as my family’s Christian festival! For my family I am making a big deal of Easter, but with strong reinforcement that this is a celebration of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, which will hopefully continue to make our faith fun and exciting for my children! What’s even more exciting is that my un-churched family will happily celebrate in this overtly Christian festival with us, yet would not go to Church. Bring the Christ into your home and bring family and friends to your home! Such great opportunities! So invites have gone out to extended family for Easter Sunday dinner, 13 coming so far! I’m on the hunt for Easter decorations, recipes and anything else that will help make this a feast to remember! I’ve put my Easter tree up (well a piece of twisted willow cut from my garden and some lovely 30p hanging eggs from the gift shop in my village!) The table will be decorated with spring flowers and I have just got some small cardboard boxes, one for each guest, which the children can decorate and then fill with mini eggs and a Bible verse. Joyce Meyer’s book ‘The Secret Power of Speaking Gods Word’ is a great little book when you want to find a verse for any occasion. I’m currently leaning towards John 6 v35 “Jesus is the Bread of Life. I come to Him and I am never hungry. I believe in Him, cleave to, trust in and rely on Him. I am never thirsty any time. I am fully satisfied.” With the boys I have started talking about the true meaning of Easter, I use ‘My First Message’ which is an excellent devotional Bible for children. So ladies lets get excited about Easter, this is what our faith is all about, let’s share it with those around us!