a day of darkness and expectation

I was deeply saddened as the speaker of the House of Commons read out today that Kim Leadbeater’s private members bill had passed its second reading with 330 MPs voting in favour and 275 against.  Many CMF members and friends have met each evening throughout November to pray that the Lord would prevent this outcome.  Many CMF members and friends have written to their MPs, visited their MPs and, in many different ways, have spoken up and made the case for how this bill is deeply dangerous, including for the most vulnerable. This is not the outcome we hoped for, the evidence and the arguments show us the dangers of this path, and this is not a path that our God, who asks us to love our neighbours, to value every human life, and to offer hope and help to those in despair, wants us to walk down. 

Now is also a moment, however, to reflect on the good work of many over the last weeks.  In Galatians 6, Paul calls believers to ‘not become weary in doing good’. With the help of the Spirit, many have taken the gifts, influence, and opportunities that God has given them and been unwearied in using them to do good by speaking up for what is true, good, and beautiful.  Alongside many colleagues of all faiths and none we have spoken up for wholistic palliative, psychological, and social care and against the legalisation of a choice for some that would be a burden to so many. 

We must now continue to hear the call of the Apostle, and with the resources our God supplies, we should not grow weary in doing good.  Many in the Commons debate (on both sides) spoke of the need to improve the current funding and support for palliative care – it is imperative that we hold parliamentarians to those intentions. And many who spoke in favour of the Bill also spoke of concerns that they had about the it but which they had been assured can be improved in committee stage.  We must continue to raise our specific concerns with our MPs and urge that they press these on the committee, and that they vote against the bill at later stages if these significant concerns are not resolved. 

And we must pray.  It is perhaps apt that this vote has happened on the cusp of the Advent season when we remember that we are in a time of both darkness and of expectation. Before the first Advent (or coming) of Christ, it would have been easy for the people of God to lose hope, and yet the faithful people of God waited in expectation, knowing that God is always one to keep his promises, to bring salvation and to provide light in the darkness.  God has not changed; he cannot. Let us cry to him for mercy and that this bill might still be stopped. Let us look to him for hope, even on this ostensibly dark day. This collect for the third Sunday in Advent may give form to our prayers along with the people of God across generations: 

God for whom we watch and wait, 

you sent John the Baptist to prepare the way of your Son: 

give us courage to speak the truth, 

to hunger for justice, 

and to suffer for the cause of right, 

with Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Amen 

Advent | The Church of England