The Green Party is celebrating its 40th birthday this weekend in Nottingham at its party conference. I'll be there (from tomorrow). It will be my first ever political party conference, so I'm quite excited. Here are some of the things I'm hoping to get out of it…
- I've been in the Green Party for almost 18 months, but I still don't feel I really know how the party actually works. I'm looking forward to learning more about that.
- I might even get to vote on things that might even make a difference to what the Green Party does in the future!
- I'm looking forward to meeting other people in the Green Party and learning what makes them tick. I'm sure there will be plenty of fascinating people there.
- I'd like to learn more about how the party sits with respect to Christian faith. On the one hand, green politics seems to fit very comfortably with Christian faith, not least in its care for the world in which we live (and here and here and here). But, on the other hand, the Green Party seems quite anti-Christian on various issues (such as abortion [and here] and a view of human identity that has nothing to do with biological gender, hence the party's strong views on same-sex marriage). It's probably not possible to answer the question of what the party as a whole thinks of Christian faith. But I'd at least like to hear a few individual perspectives, to see if there is anything approaching a general consensus, and to figure out which issues are influenced by this. I'd certainly love to see the party making a more conscious effort to appeal to people of various faiths.
- I'm sure there will be quite a buzz at the conference, and I'd like to pick up some enthusiasm!
- Finally, I've given in to pressure from the surrounding culture, and I now have a (second-hand) "smart" phone. So I'm looking forward to feeling cool by tweeting from my gadget during the conference sessions and adding a few pence (and only a few pence!) to my mobile bill with The Phone Co-op.
Maybe see you there!