麻豆社

Good morning.

I鈥檓 glad our new Prime Minister has managed to rejig his diary and found time to join the United Nations COP 27 in Egypt. I鈥檓 glad for Britain and I鈥檓 glad for him.

I鈥檓 glad for the country, because my vision for the UK is of a nation that can play a leading role in international affairs, not by dint of coercive power but through moral example. I鈥檝e learned, through my work on Responsible Investment with the Church of England鈥檚 main endowment fund, that moral leadership can have real impact. Nowhere is it more necessary, I would contend, than in the fight to stabilise planetary warming.

But I鈥檓 glad for our Prime Minister too. Glad, because notwithstanding everything that has landed on his desk in Downing Street, it matters to me that our leaders travel. They need to see faces and hear voices from beyond these shores. They need to engage in conversations that are not just about pressing domestic challenges. Travelling, as clich茅 puts it, broadens the mind. Not only does it introduce us to new situations, it provides a fresh, and often refreshing, perspective on the problems we face at home. Even if, as I suspect Mr Sunak will have done, we take some work with us.

Travel lies at the heart of the Hebrew Scriptures. Leaders such as Abraham, Jacob and Moses, grow towards greatness by the journeys they undertake. The New Testament picks up the theme, both Jesus and St Paul gain crucial insight into their calling by engaging with people of different backgrounds, and away from home territory.

Once, at a church Annual Meeting, I was challenged over my outside interests, chairing a growing Housing Association, and serving on a government Working Party. My response was that I believed the parish got better value out of me four days a week than it would from the six available had I dropped all external involvements. My wider engagements made me a more effective vicar. Ever since, I鈥檝e encouraged clergy, who are typically among the most hard working people you will ever encounter, to have some ministerial interest, for between half and a full day each week, beyond their parish boundaries. Most of us lead better by not spending all our time at the day job.

So I鈥檓 hoping our PM will not only find his brief sojourn a welcome respite from the Westminster bear pit, but will be inspired to a greater vision of the moral role Britain can play on the international stage. And maybe have picked up a few handy hints as to how to steer a course for our nation through the challenges of the coming winter.

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