THANKS to Devon Heartlands Community Forum and the Ockment Centre, residents of Okehampton and the surrounding area will have the chance to come face to face with their prospective parliamentary candidates for the new constituency of Central Devon.
We, the constituents, will have a new collective identity which gives us all the power to use our vote and bring about a change of direction.
Here is the opportunity to ask questions about the things that concern us. For instance there is an ongoing trend towards building a secular society.
At this time of the year Christians give thought to giving up something for Lent. We live in a blame culture and one of the hardest attitudes to give up is thinking of the faults of others instead of looking at our own. What if I abstained from fault finding ?
After all, the message of the cross on Good Friday is that I must be crossed out. Then what ?
At the very heart of Okehampton we have the sacred space of the mayoral chapel of St James. There we see displayed for all to see, the Lord's prayer which asks for God's kingdom to come and ends with the statement that the kingdom belongs to God the Father. Does the United Kingdom belong to God ?
V A Cushing
Okehampton