Day three at CSM

Yesterday lunchtime, Jay and I met with Tom Quinn, researcher for Andy Reed and a member of CSM who plays an instrumental role in 'Young CSM', for lunch in Portcullis House. It was great to meet Tom who is obviously a very hard-working guy and who is really passionate about God and cares about politics. He has been instrumental in setting up 'Young CSM' for those members under the age of 30. After starting up very recently with a launch in early May, 'Young CSM' is still in its early stages. It was really exciting to meet Tom who obviously has a bright future ahead of him but who is also so passionate about God's kingdom and about the role he has within CSM and I couldn't help but get excited about how God is going to use him and about the great stuff God has got planned for the places Young CSM is going to go and the things it is going to do.

After lunch I went with Andy Flannagan to a Christians in Politics meeting in Westminster Hall. Christians in Politics is a cross-party group made up of the Christian groups in the three major parties with the aim of getting Christians outside of Westminster involved in voting and in party politics as well as supporting Christians already in those three parties. The focus of the meeting was about providing resources for Christian groups to get people involved in politics before the next general election. Representatives were there from CCF (Conservative Christian Forum), the LDCF (Liberal Democrat Christian Forum), CSM, Premier Christian Radio, the Bible Society, Care, and Evangelical Alliance. The meeting was frustrating at times with alot of discussion and deliberation and little decision making. The meeting ended at around 3.45 PM with decisions having been made about the direction of the preparations for these resources for the general election.

After the Christians in Politics meeting in Westminster Hall, I met up with David Landrum for coffee in Portcullis House. David Landrum works for the Bible Society as their Senior Parliamentary Officer. His role is to support and equip all Christians in Parliament to use their Bible and apply it to their politics regardless of party alliances. David is also a member of the Labour party, although not of CSM and when I asked him what his connection to CSM was he said that he loved Andy Flannagan and thought he was doing a great job for CSM. This was evident later on when Andy joined us, I could see that there was alot of affection and friendly banter between the two of them. David is a former politics and sociology teacher and so for me it was great to meet him and talk to him about my experiences of A Level politics and its relevence to my Christian faith. I went away from the meeting with a long list of books to read and websites to visit and it was great to have someone who is full of advice tell me what he thought would be useful for me to have a look at.

Grace Vanstone-Hallam, 23/07/2009