God's Loving Embrace

Part Five

'Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord.'

Psalms 31:24

"Some of these figures are hugely disappointing...I mean less than twenty million people actually attend church on any regular basis?" Michael Winstanley commented, scanning the latest reports provided by Charles Buckingham, Harry Trevor and Peter Munroe. The three ministers had travelled to Meadvale for a Church meeting and they were all having dinner with the Archbishop and David Harrington at Broomwaters, the Harrington's large house in the village. Buckingham had brought a whole range of statistics with him, to discuss and the best way to reveal them during the election campaign. It was safe to say that the Archbishop had not taken the news well.

"And you used to tell me to slow down, Michael." Harry Trevor laughed, remembering their earlier conversation and his own original impatience to move faster. The simple fact was that the basic structural sociological changes required patience. More people would gravitate towards the faith in time, of their own volition, and that was preferable to using force. It was necessary to push things along occasionally but they always needed to take care.

"That is at least a four hundred percent increase...in five years...and that number doesn't even include the Muslims...or any other immigrant religions, Michael." Charles Buckingham added, agreeing with his protégé. "Church school regulations gave us an initial boost and still provides the core of the increase, but attendances are consistently up."

"How much of that figure is the Church of England though?"

"Oh less than half," Harry Trevor replied, feeling better after talking to the Archbishop about the girls. His work always took his mind off other things, and the subject in question was a passion for him, moving state and religion closer together, again, as it had always been before the damaging historical events of the twentieth century. "Since the schism, they have increased, but at less than half the rate we have."

"Have you looked at making attendance compulsory for government employees?"

"Yes, and of course it is possible, but we need a palatable excuse. Everything we have done is for a reason, however flimsy our opponents think it is, and the people have supported us because of that. FID's are a safety issue. Keeping our wives and daughters safe, with a fine moral argument too, in preventing unmarried women from misbehaving etcetera, which the socialists never expected to get the support of the electorate." Peter Munroe replied, because that was his remit as Home Secretary. "Modest dressing hits the same buttons with the voters because it is reasonable, but anything further is much harder to justify."

"Mainly because it is outside our mandate," Charles emphasised, as always the democrat at heart. In basic terms, Harry Trevor was the fervent ideologist, whilst Munroe was the career politician, prone to changing with the polls. Buckingham had never been a fanatic, as some would say Harry Trevor was, but he was always a Reformist, as long as they had a majority of public opinion in their favour. That was his angle, he was a democrat. He had no interest in being part of a dictatorship. "So...now our plans should turn to our manifesto again...we can cover all these issues when we go to the people."

"Charles, you know that I agree, but I do want to prepare the ground, at the very least, for something more." Winstanley said firmly.

"Ok, we can look at it...Harry?"

"Yes, I already am...as part of our drive for nurses and teachers. But I am only a third of the way there. Far too many women are still employed, and the millions in the C of E camp are not providing their fair share. I am with Michael on this...we need to increase the numbers of people committing to the Church..."