A QUESTION OF FAITH

With Rev Helena Whittaker Associate Priest of St Mary’s Church in Hinckley I EXPECT I’m not the only one who looks forward to the summer as a time to recharge my batteries, take stock and re-establish habits and routines that have long since been forgotten after the initial enthusiasm of New Year’s resolutions.

As a teacher, as well as a priest, the summer break arrives with gratitude and thankfulness.

I started this time with a short break away at Launde Abbey, a beautiful place in East Leicestershire (well worth a visit for afternoon tea!).

It was time to just stop; to be; to put aside the usual routines and jobs of everyday life.

It gave me time to have a look at my priorities and to spend some time making space for God.

Taking time and space away from our daily routines is something I believe is important for us all, whether we deliberately spend that time with God, or not.

For some of us we’re able to go away to another place, but whether away or at home, it’s good to create the space and time we need to reconnect with ourselves and the things that are important to us.

This might be a quiet cup of tea in the garden, or a wander through a local park; it might be sitting still in our flat, without the television on. There are many ways that we can find moments of stillness.

It was a habit that Jesus built into his life.

In the Bible, we read about the times Jesus would go off into the hills, or sit by the lake, deliberately taking himself away from other people and from the towns and villages where he worked.

He knew the value of taking time out and built it regularly into his lifestyle.

In today’s world there are many things that crowd out stillness and quiet. There is the sound of the television, the noise of the traffic, the thoughts and anxieties that we have buzzing around our minds and many more distractions from peace and quiet. Taking time out helps us to take time to notice the little things that can often bring us joy – the flower, the birdsong, the wind against our face – the little things it is easy not to notice in the course of our daily lives.

As the writer of the Psalms wrote: ‘Be still and know that I am God’. So take time out, be still and enjoy the simple pleasures of life, and in the stillness I encourage you to spend time with the God who loves you, enjoys your presence and has created this beautiful world for you to enjoy.

May God bless you in your times of stillness. THERESA May, having spent a fortune calling a snap general election we didn’t need and losing her majority in parliament, has now used over £1 billion of public money to get the Northern Irish DUP to agree to keep her in power. Yet here in Hinckley and Bosworth we are told there is no more money for our NHS which is facing cuts or for our schools which are chronically underfunded.

Christine Palmer and A Clarke’s letters on July 5, 2017 mentioned myself and Nick Clegg. At the time of the tuition fees rise I publicly wrote to Nick Clegg to say that his decision to support raising fees was wrong. I also went on live radio at the time to say that raising tuition fees was wrong.

My experience as a county councillor also meant that I also saw on the ground what a bad policy the “Bedroom Tax” was. I was therefore glad that after speaking in a debate on the subject at Liberal Democrat conference a few years ago I succeeded in changing national Lib Dem policy to one of opposing the Bedroom Tax.

In the Journal of Liberal History’s study of the coalition government 2010-15 I was referred to as one of Nick Clegg’s strongest “critics” within the Lib Dems. I’m sure he would then have been surprised if he had read Christine and A Clarke’s letters last week.

My approach as a campaigner has always been to put what I believed to be right and the interests of local people in Hinckley and Bosworth first ahead of slavishly supporting the “party line”. Unlike our current MP who has supported the Government line on almost everything, whether it’s voting for benefit cuts for local disabled people or just recently, voting against lifting the pay cap for hardworking, hard-pressed fire fighters, NHS Staff, police and teachers.

When standing to be MP for Bosworth at the last three general elections I always took the view that my role, if elected, was to be Hinckley and Bosworth’s spokesman at Westminster, to stand up for local people and their services and never to be Westminster’s spokesman in Bosworth just slavishly following a party line.

Michael Mullaney Lib Dem Councillor, Hinckley