Ed’s Guide to the Marginal’s Project

In my role as a volunteer for the Christian Socialist Movement (CSM), it has been my privilege to develop, alongside Tom Warnett, a project to enable the wider Church to dialogue and engage their Labour MPs and Prospective Parliamentary Candidates (PPCs). What follows is a short account of how I sought to get this project off the ground in several key constituencies. I hope this might serve as a guide for anyone seeking to continue work on the project or to further develop the techniques established over a few months in 2009.

Initial Steps

Having agreed 12 to 14 marginal constituencies to work with I began the process of making contact with Churches in about 7 constituencies I had chosen to work on (the other 5 or so were worked on by Tom). For those constituencies where our Director Andy Flannagan hadn’t already worked his networking magic the initial work involved a very simple Google search.

Typing the primary place name of the constituency with the word ‘churches’ into Google, the search engine then initiated a map and text search. Using Wikipedia to get a good idea of the constituency boundaries, I would then identify the churches most likely to be within the constituency’s boundaries. Typing a church’s Post Code into the ‘Find your MP’ search box at the contacting your MP section of http://www.parliament.uk/ gave me the relevant MP for each church and thus whether the church sites were within the relevant constituency. Having said this churches that did not strictly fall inside the constituency boundaries were also contacted as Christians who live within one constituency often worship in another.

Talking to the Churches

The process could now begin in earnest; using each church’s website I phoned the main church office number. To whoever answered the phone I would give my name, state that I was calling from the Christian Socialist Movement and quickly explain that there were two purposes of my call, that we were hoping to facilitate a meeting between the Labour MP or PCC with Church leaders and Christians in the area and, in addition to ask whether there were any issues of concern to their particular church. The person answering the phone could be very comfortable explaining who would be best to talk to and how to contact them. Equally the person responding could be quite cautious and would often refer you to their Pastor or an assistant church leader. Following on from here it was a case of emailing or phoning those who your first contact had suggested would be best to speak to.

In following this process with a number of Churches in the different constituencies it was often pleasantly surprising how quickly I was making contact with the most politically active Christians and/or Church leaders in the area.

Spreading the Net

In a number of the key marginals we were working with our Director; Andy Flannagan who so often knows the most positive people to talk to. Speaking with those Andy recommended would often yield very fast results in terms of engaging with many people on the ground to bring on board. It is important to mention that the process I went through for constituencies where, as CSM we didn’t have strong established relationships, was also entered into in areas where we did have those contacts enabling me both to extend our reach both to involve more churches and also adding to our information about churches up an down the country.

CSM Members

Whilst building relationship with the churches remained my priority, it was important to contact and invite CSM members into the whole process. Partly because it was often local CSM members who had been the most active in each area and were the most informed about the ‘realities on the ground’ in terms of both who could be good to talk to and flagging up any particular challenges that I would otherwise be unaware of, not least because CSM members are occasionally themselves Church leaders!

Crib Sheets

It became clear during the carrying out of the project that we needed to be able to both demonstrate to the Labour Party the fruits of our efforts as well as enabling anyone new we might hand over the baton to have all the information at their finger tips. For each of the constituencies I would therefore develop a ‘Crib Sheet’ which would set out all the helpful information about all the key people and Churches we talked to most notably the contact information and any political concerns that had been mentioned or that might arise.

MPs and PCCs

On the Labour Party side of the project it was essential to make contact and request the blessing of the relevant MP or PCC, their election organiser or diary secretary. It was necessary for them to feel that they had sufficient ‘ownership’ of the process. Thanks to our Director I was enabled to draft a letter for the Labour Party’s Deputy General Secretary which then went out to each MP and PCC we wanted to assist. In any email correspondence with an MP PCC or their office I would be able attach a copy of the letter they had already received. Generally I was impressed by the level of goodwill shown towards myself and the CSM from everyone who worked both for the Labour Party and in Constituency and Parliamentary offices.

Sensitivities

In a constituency where the Labour representative is a PCC and not a sitting MP the challenge of Church leaders preferring to do a three party meeting would arise more definitively. I often found myself embarking on the gentle art of persuasion as to the benefits of meetings that involved only the Labour candidate represented. The key points were most succinctly expressed by our office manager Jay and following on from her I have sought to develop the vision for Christians to feel confident engaging in a meeting where only one party is represented.

Engagement

In order for anything to actually happen in terms of meetings or events the primary accelerator for action was getting potential dates from PCCs and MP’s diary secretaries. Having one or two dates to bounce off key Church movers in each constituency really began to firm up the whole process and meant that very quickly there would be a focus on finding a venue, deciding who would chair the church hall meeting and who and how such meetings could be publicised to local Christians.

Conclusion

Ultimately, in order to facilitate a meeting, three roles needed to be filled. The event would need to be organised, publicised and chaired. While it is possible for this role to be performed by one person, I found that having two people working together, with one taking the lead, worked best.

Additionally, it is important before any Church hall or one-on-one meeting take place, that the organisers ensure that the Church recommend that any Church hall meeting or one on one with a Church pastor first have a mutual understanding that the MP or PCC was engaging with Christian constituents to hear, understand and respond to their concerns. We also hope that we are also engaged in something special that is a witness of Christ.

Edward Rennie, 17/12/2009