I’m very glad that politicians are talking about the Big Society.

 

A low point in political thinking came when Maggie Thatcher declared that there was no such thing as society. There seemed to follow a period when looking after number one took centre stage and the selfish pursuit of wealth seemed to dominate. 

 

Selfishness is still with us, as the bankers’ bonuses only highlight too clearly, but there seems to be an opportunity for society to change, as we are all challenged to think about the Big Society.

 

What worries me is that this is just a political game, and that, in the short term, nothing much will change. If society remains good for the few who are able to afford it and bad for those in poverty, then we will not be building the Big Society, but just maintaining the unequal society. A society should not be based on the charity of the rich helping to relieve the worst effects of poverty, but on redistributing wealth on a much more radical scale.

 

The Big Society that David Cameron is promoting is to give more power to local communities and local organisations, so that they can provide some of the services that have previously been provided by the state. 

 

This sounds very good in theory, but I think the shift is happening too fast. Services are being cut, which are inevitably affecting the disabled, poor and vulnerable more than those who have their own wealth to protect them. The new provisions will take time to emerge and I wonder whether all the needs can be met by new social enterprises. 

 

We must monitor the needs of the vulnerable and hold the government to account if people are left without the support they need. After cutting too much, too quickly, the government may have to rethink and re-introduce some state or local government provision. It is the needs of the vulnerable which should drive the provision, and the last thing we need now is cuts in essential services. Let caring for one another be the dominant theme that drives the move to a Big Society.

 

So what is the relationship between the Big Society and the Kingdom of God? The Church’s purpose right from its foundation, with the coming of Jesus, is to bring about the Kingdom of God. The prayer that Jesus taught us has, at its heart, ‘Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’.

 

So the Kingdom of God, that the Church is interested in bringing about, will have certain characteristics that can help us to answer what kind of Big Society it is that we wish to work towards.

 

Firstly, it is a society based on love. God is love and he wants us to be loving. So I personally think that any Big Society, which is not based on loving and caring for each other, is not worth working for. Love is inclusive, and if there is one single person in our society who is excluded and unloved, then this is a challenge to all of us.

Secondly, it is a society where leadership is based on serving one another. Jesus shows us that to be a leader is to serve others. He gave us the example of washing the disciples’ feet and said that the greatest amongst us is the least. So the Big Society needs leaders who are willing to love and to serve. We don’t want politicians or rich people to be selfish and greedy, and to Lord it over others, but to be loving, gentle and kind.

 

Thirdly, the Big Society needs to be an equal society. The prayer of Mary, mother of Jesus, is a very radical prayer – ‘He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly’. Whenever the kingdom of heaven comes then there is the breaking into the world of peace and justice.

 

We cannot have peace without justice and the coming of the kingdom of heaven is sometimes very disturbing, because injustice needs to be challenged and overturned. The Big Society needs to be based on justice for it will never be a Good Society if it is rife with inequality. For the Big Society to work it must be Good Society and the only Good Society is that which is based on the principles of the Kingdom of God.

 

May I wish peace and justice to all in 2011 as we work towards the Big Society and the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth.