Gorleston church to host election hustings

A church in Gorleston is offering its community an opportunity to meet and put questions to the General Election candidates in Great Yarmouth constituency.

St Mary Magdalene Church in Gorleston are hosting a question-time-style General Election Hustings on Thursday June 20 at 7.30pm.

At the time of writing, Catherine Blaiklock of the English Democrats, James Clark the Conservative party, Keir Cozens of the Labour Party and Trevor Rawson of the Green Party have all confirmed their attendance at the hustings. Rupert Lowe, the Reform party candidate, is unable to attend, but will be sending Jason Patchett, his party's candidate for the North Norfolk constituency, as his representative. All other candidates have also received an invitation.

Rev Matthew Price, Vicar of St Mary Magdalene Church, who will be chairing the hustings, said, “We are delighted to be able to offer a space for the community to meet the candidates, hear their policies and ask questions about their positions. As our political discourse has become increasingly polarised, particularly online, it feels especially important that we offer this opportunity. I am grateful to the candidates for being willing to come and engage with the community.

“The Bible is really clear that we all have a responsibility to engage in our wider society. With the many issues facing our country at this time, my prayer is that Christians will be active in this election, and be prayerfully considering how they might engage in this election and ultimately cast their vote.  We hope our election hustings might be one way in which local Christians can engage with the local candidates."

In order to attend the hustings people are asked to collect a free ticket from the St Mary Magdalene church office which is open Monday to Fridays between 9am and 4pm. Any surplus tickets will be available on the evening at the door on a first come, first served basis. Doors will open at 7pm on the evening.

Questions to be put to the candidates can be submitted in advance via the email address: hustings@stmmgorleston.org.uk

Rev Price continued, “I hope local people will take the opportunity to ask their questions of the candidates and I would urge everyone to consider submitting a question to our special email address. I am looking forward to chairing an event which enables all of us to make an informed decision as we cast our votes on 4th July.”


Photo courtesy of Rev Matthew Price