Despite not really liking Ferrero Rocher chocolates, I have spent a lot of time over the last five years with ambassadors – first as the former Prime Minister’s Deputy Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief, and now as I finish my time as Adviser to the Chair of the Article 18 Alliance of religious freedom envoys.
Ambassadors can be seen in public but rarely heard. Like the best referees or umpires, whom you don’t really notice until after the match that they have done a good job (although the old cricket umpire legend the late Dicky Bird was of course an exception). It is why the recent public criticism around former US Ambassador Peter Mandelson proved fatal to his career.
We aren't used to good news, so much so that back in 1993, the BBC newsreader Martin Lewis complained that there wasn't enough good news being reported. I understand that the BBC responded by setting up a team dedicated to solution-focused news - whatever that means!
I was at a talk recently given by former Labour MP Jon Cruddas about the importance of Christianity in the Labour Party and socialism and found myself agreeing with almost everything!
Now I am not about to tear up my Conservative Party membership card. However it reminded me how for Christians in politics there is much more which unites us than divides us, and amid polarising political winds it is worth spending a little time exploring these Christian unifying forces.
Have you been praying for the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei recently?
Actually maybe you have, given the Trump self-declared “12 day” war between Israel and Iran. I pray that by the time this article reaches you the conflict in the Middle East will have not escalated into a full-blown global war.
We have recently moved house and are now putting up some pictures. A favourite is a print of a painting which centres on a young Christian enslaved woman in the Temple of Artemis, dedicated to the goddess Diana.
She was being given a “choice” by Roman soldiers. Will she give up Christianity by offering incense to the statue of the goddess Diana, and gain her freedom or will she refuse and be dragged away by the soldiers to be killed? The caption reads - Diana or Christ?
We've recently had a bunch of local elections, and I was reminded of the famous quote of Tip O’Neill, then US House of Representatives Speaker, that “all politics is local."
A good case though can be made for the prosecution that politics is far from being local but rather national even international as we are now in an era of globalisation, where events in countries like China, Russia and the US have have a big impact on our economics and politics.
I am writing this article on the way back from the Conservative Party Conference, where most of my time was spent with the Conservative Christian Fellowship, who had an exhibition stand at the entrance to the conference hall. The talk of the conference was about leadership.
This has made me reflect not so much upon the qualities of the leadership candidates but upon the distinctive Christian characteristics of leadership, which are needed not just in the Conservative Party but across public life.
Christ's ambassadors, united by faith across nations
Despite not really liking Ferrero Rocher chocolates, I have spent a lot of time over the last five years with ambassadors – first as the former Prime Minister’s Deputy Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief, and now as I finish my time as Adviser to the Chair of the Article 18 Alliance of religious freedom envoys.
Ambassadors can be seen in public but rarely heard. Like the best referees or umpires, whom you don’t really notice until after the match that they have done a good job (although the old cricket umpire legend the late Dicky Bird was of course an exception). It is why the recent public criticism around former US Ambassador Peter Mandelson proved fatal to his career.