Skip to main content

Election Results


Tis' the season for elections. Last week's council and European elections seem to have sealed Gordon Brown's fate. The parliamentary Labour Party are unlikely to try to topple him now, but most commentators agree that this is only because no-one else wants to lead Labour into the electoral rout that the general election is likely to be next year. An instant economic miracle seems to be the only thing that will save them.

The European results here were equally demonstrative, with the republicans topping the poll for the first ever time, whilst the Unionist cut each other to ribbons... the only thing that Unionism has to be thankful for is that they managed to get two representatives elected despite this. There was a very real possibility of SDLP taking the third seat. There are many lessons to be learned here. I only hope that it will not result in the DUP running further to the right again, stirring up yet more anti-republican/nationalist/Roman Catholic feeling as a means of rallying their grass-roots and clinging on to power in Stormont and Westminster.

I'm just back from the Irish Methodist Conference in Dublin and there were some interesting, if not historic, votes and elections there too. As is our tradition we not only installed our President for 2009-10, we also elected our President Designate for 2010-11, and this will be Rev. Paul Kingston (C)... so designated not because he is conservative (with a large or small c) but to distinguish him from his relatives Paul Kingston (A) and Paul Kingston (B). There's a lot of these Kingstons about... a point I shall return to later.

Thanks to another long campaigned-for decision, Paul (C) will be the first President of the Methodist Church in Ireland who will also be the President of the Annual Conference of the Methodist Church in Ireland. Since the time of John Wesley (apart from a few extraordinary cases) the conference has been chaired by the British Methodist President and our own President has been Vice-President of the Conference. So this confusing post-colonial anomaly is now consigned to the history books, although conference was very keen that we should make all efforts to retain a strong link with the British Methodist Church.

We have introduced a new point of confusion however, by electing, for the first time, a Lay Leader, of Conference. Its not the fact of electing a lay leader, which, in my humble opinion, is a positive step forward in breaking the stultifying clericalism which can tend to pervade Irish Methodism as with many churches, but the fact that we have elected Mrs. Gillian Kingston to that role. She is a worthy winner having faithfully represented the Methodist Church in Ireland in a number of roles previously. However, for the first year of her three year term she is going to spend more time than is necessary explaining that despite her being Mrs. Kingston, she is NOT the wife of the President.

But I wish both Mr. and Mrs. Kingston well as they prepare for their new roles.

However, of all the elections at this time, perhaps the most momentous is the one yet to come... The election for the President of Iran this coming Friday, where there is a real possibility that the radical President Ahmadinejad may be toppled by the reformist candidate and former Prime Minister Mousavi. Whether this is the case and the response of Ahmadinejad and his supporters if it is, may well dictate the political landscape, not only of the middle east, but also of America and Europe, for the next 4 years.

I for one, will be watching avidly and prayerfully...




Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Woman of no Distinction

Don't often post other people's stuff here... But I found this so powerful that I thought I should. It's a performance poem based on John 4: 4-30, and I have attached the original YouTube video below. A word for women, and men, everywhere... "to be known is to be loved, and to be loved is to be known." I am a woman of no distinction of little importance. I am a women of no reputation save that which is bad. You whisper as I pass by and cast judgmental glances, Though you don’t really take the time to look at me, Or even get to know me. For to be known is to be loved, And to be loved is to be known. Otherwise what’s the point in doing either one of them in the first place? I WANT TO BE KNOWN. I want someone to look at my face And not just see two eyes, a nose, a mouth and two ears; But to see all that I am, and could be all my hopes, loves and fears. But that’s too much to hope for, to wish for, or pray for So I don’t, not anymore. Now I keep to myself And by that
2 comments
Read more

Psalm for Harvest Sunday

A short responsive psalm for us as a call to worship on Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday, and given that it was pouring with rain as I headed into church this morning the first line is an important remembrance that the rain we moan about is an important component of the fruitfulness of the land we live in: You tend the land and water it And the earth produces its abundance. You crown each year with your bounty, and our storehouses overflow with your goodness. The mountain meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are filled with corn; Your people celebrate your boundless grace They shout for joy and sing. from Psalm 65
3 comments
Read more

Anointed

There has been a lot of chatter on social media among some of my colleagues and others about the liturgical and socio-political niceties of Saturday's coronation and attendant festivities, especially the shielding of the anointing with the pictured spoon - the oldest and perhaps strangest of the coronation artefacts. Personally I thought that was at least an improvement on the cloth of gold canopy used in the previous coronation, but (pointless) debates are raging as to whether this is an ancient practice or was simply introduced in the previous service to shield the Queen from the TV cameras, not for purposes of sacredness, but understandable coyness, if she actually had to bare her breast bone in puritan 1950s Britain. But as any church leader knows, anything performed twice in a church becomes a tradition. All this goes to show that I did actually watch it, while doing other things - the whole shooting match from the pre-service concert with yer wumman in that lemon-
2 comments
Read more