Christian leaders ponder UK's fate after election.

Leaders of many prominent Christian organizations in Britain believe the recently installed Labour Party government will take positive action in key areas of concern such as Third World debt, rights of asylum-seekers and control of landmines. A survey of British aid organizations by Ecumenical News International (ENI) revealed optimism among their leaders in the wake of Labour's victory in the May 1 general election.

Led by Tony Blair, a practising Christian, Labour won a total of 418 seats in the 659-seat House of Commons, sweeping away 18 years of Conservative rule. However, according to some left-wingers, the price of Labour's victory is a centrist rather than a left-wing agenda. Before the election, the Labour Party committed itself to following the outgoing government's spending plans for two years, seeming to restrict the scope for large domestic improvements in education and health.

Leading officials in church welfare and aid organizations questioned by ENI encouraged Prime Minister Blair and his cabinet to boost overseas aid and action for the poor. Many officials are optimistic the new government, although faced with some financial restrictions, will give overseas aid and development work a high priority.

David Haslam, of the Churches' Commission for Racial Justice, believes the government will act on the rising number of racial attacks in Britain and on problems faced by asylum-seekers. "But," Haslam pointed out, "we are not expecting miracles."

David Cairns, co-ordinator of the Christian Socialist Movement, which has 5,000 individual subscribing members including the new prime minister, said: "The new culture of public service ... will resonate with Christians. Words like `community' and `compassion' are back."

However, Tim Montgomerie, director of the Conservative Christian Fellowship, whose members support the defeated Conservative Party, sees things differently. He spoke of the "strong likelihood of moral deregulation," that, he predicted, would include government support for homosexual marriages, euthanasia and attacks on religious education in schools.

Montgomerie, whose organization has 1,400 households as members, was highly critical of views held by members of the new government. He suggested that although Labour was constrained by the spending limits it had vowed to respect, it would not be embarrassed about loosening the nation's morals. "With the spending constraints that Tony Blair is under, I'd expect him to take the cost-free alternative to keep his MPs happy," Montgomerie said. (ENI)