From the Rector's Desk

Dear friends,

This article will reach you shortly after the Republican National Convention which took place in Manhattan in August, and by then you and I may all have had more than enough of politics for this season. But I want you to think seriously about something and that is the subject of this letter.

It is my conviction that all Christians are required by their faith to vote. Unlike other religions which believe that human history is an endless repetition of cycles and seasons, we Christians, along with our Jewish ancestors, believe that human history is moving toward God. History has meaning. God uses the raw stuff of human history for his purposes, to show his goals for humanity, to display a picture of a redeemed humanity and to create a new community which, in the book of Revelation in the New Testament is described as the heavenly Jerusalem, aspects of which start to be manifest here and now.

Jesus himself urges us to render to Caesar that which is Caesar’s and to God that which is God’s. Challenging saying, that. It is easy to think that this saying means that God is not concerned with the affairs of “Caesar”. But note carefully that this is not what Jesus is really saying. He does not say “forget about Caesar” he says “pay attention to Caesar.” I would argue that a part of paying attention to Caesar is remembering to vote for those candidates which you believe will stand for those public policies which will come the closest to creating that new city which God has in mind for humanity.

Every vote counts. The millions of South Africans who walked for miles and prayed in line at the polls in their country’s first post apartheid democratic election a decade ago reminded us of the importance of voting. In totalitarian countries such as Cuba and Communist China, men and women either have no right to vote or can only vote in carefully controlled elections. Similar restrictions on basic human rights exist in places in the Muslim world and in some parts of Africa. In light of the number of people around the world who have no right to vote, it is especially disappointing that so few people in our country exercise this right denied to others. Close to half of

those eligible to vote don’t bother. Turnout among young people, those between 18 and 24, has fallen to about 32% since 1972.

So, for all these reasons, I urge you to register and to vote.

Meanwhile, why not clip this prayer and put it in your prayer book for use throughout this political season:

Almighty God, to whom we must account for all our powers and privileges: Guide the people of the United States in the election of officials and representatives, that by faithful administration and wise laws, the rights of all may be protected and our nation be enabled to fulfill your purposes; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.


Faithfully,



The Rev’d Lloyd Prator
Rector