We are still at the stage where individuals are making New Year’s resolutions and churches are sharing their vision for 2026. Our own church spent time thinking about our vision to make Jesus the most talked about name in our city, be for the good of the city and impact nations on Sunday. We particularly expressed a desire to see people coming to faith, being discipled, getting baptised and growing in faith.
Being for the good of the city is partly about how we show compassion and care in our immediate locality but also about having a voice and being a witness to our wider civic society and culture. I think it is a good thing for both churches and individuals to have such a concern, to engage in the public square.
So if you are the resolution or vision making type of person or church, I would encourage you to be thinking about this for 2026. Specifically I want to encourage you to think about how we encourage our culture to choose life instead of death. There are a number of things about our culture that speak of death. This is both about physical death and about examples that belong with the curse.
So, here are some things to think about. First there are things that are explicitly and specifically to do with physical life and death.
- Last year, Parliament moved to extend abortion with a measure that in effect decriminalises for any reason up to birth. In what ways can we speak up for the unborn?
- Similarly we still have a bill going through the House of Lords which will introduce assisted suicide. My concern is that even if this bill gets blocked, legalisation is getting closer. We need Christians to be ready to robustly make the case against euthanasia.
Here are some issues that we might want to reflect on which are part of that wider choice of a culture of life or death.
- If we are against abortion then we need to keep thinking about adoption, fostering and support for struggling families. We need to be aware that adoption and fostering are not easy solutions. There are many obstacles to this. It’s not a journey to start out on alone or without much prayer and support. How can churches be involved? Are you linked in to Home For Good and Safer families?
- Similarly, we cannot care about end of life issues without talking about palliative care. Partly this will mean campaigns to encourage better care through the NHS. It will also mean encouraging doctors, nurses and medical students towards palliative care careers. Maybe it even means that just as we have seen Christian charities involved in adoption, poverty relief etc, we need to see similar charities providing high quality palliative support.
- Yesterday I raised the issue if isolation and loneliness that leads to too many people dying alone, unmourned. I’d love to see a conversation happening this year about what we can do about this less reported crisis
Is there anything you would add to this list?
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