Danny Webster
Danny joined the Evangelical Alliance in 2008 and has held a range of roles in the advocacy team. He currently leads the advocacy team's work across the UK including public policy work an engagement with the parliaments and assemblies, and respective governments. Before working for the Evangelical Alliance, Danny, who has degrees in politics and political philosophy, worked in parliament for an MP. Danny is passionate about encouraging Christians to integrate their faith with all areas of their life, especially when it comes to helping them take on leadership outside the church, and helped initiate the Evangelical Alliance's Public Leadership programme. He frequently provides comment on current political issues, both in Evangelical Alliance publications and to the press.
Government powers for coronavirus must be proportionate
23 March 2020We at the Evangelical Alliance recognise the incredible times that we are living in and the need for emergency legislation both to equip public services in their response and to keep the population safe. The legislation being considered by Parliament this week is broad in scope and contains provisions which would be unthinkable in normal circumstances. The planned law makes provision for the Government to take action in different areas should the need arise. This is why it is a complex and…
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Heroes and hoarders
19 March 2020The country may not literally be on fire, but it's the imagery of the person running into the flames rather than away from the risk that we are buoyed by, that we admire, that is lauded so strongly on social media and the news. One of the challenges of this specific crisis is how inactive and intangible our help and selflessness must be. We can't lean in, lend a hand and be present in the ways we would normally try to. Distance is a form of kindness and yet feels very unnatural. We have huge…
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Coronavirus: a Christ-centred response
5 March 2020Across the UK 85 cases had been confirmed as of Wednesday, 4 March. This is a relatively small number compared to the 80,000 so far confirmed in China and the further 10,000 in other countries around the world. It will probably never be known how accurate these figures are, with the BBC reporting that infectious disease specialists suspect that as many as two thirds of cases in China have not been detected and recorded. In Italy more than 2,000 people have tested positive, with more than 70…
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New decade, renewed conviction
2 January 2020Radio call ins reflected on all that had happened and all that had changed. You may have seen the clip from Tomorrow’s World in 1989 speculating on what the home of 2020 would be like. Some aspects were remarkably prescient, the suggestion that you would be able to walk into a room and say what music you wanted, and it would play, others less so – the idea that electricity would be in the walls of buildings and sockets would be obsolete doesn’t look like coming to fruition anytime soon.…
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Book review: Reappearing Church
2 January 2020A church leader from Melbourne in Australia, he has wrestled for many years through finding ways for the church to thrive in the post-Christian culture endemic in the places he lives, works and travels. From pioneering formats of church to reach those disillusioned with traditional church to realising the paucity of deconstructing faith with nothing left in its wake, his latest book offers a manifesto for hope and renewal in this cultural moment. Perhaps best known for the podcast This Cultural…
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Labour, Rabbi Mirvis and fearlessly speaking out
28 November 2019For many watching the interview, having heard the critique of anti-Semitism by a wide range of Jewish groups, it might be hard to understand why Mr Corbyn did not apologise. Instead, he insisted on his own virtue in standing against racism and his willingness to talk to Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis to discuss his concerns. Sorry is often a very hard word for politicians to speak. It means admitting fault and accepting the need to change course. It is why the challenge of repentance at the heart of…
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For the politically homeless this election time
22 November 2019This upheavel is both the result of political realignment, but also the fuel for further realignment. This has been witnessed in parliament as MPs have left their parties, often sparked by concerns over leadership or policies on Brexit, and it has been seen in elections as new parties have burst onto the scene. The sight of neither the Conservatives nor Labour coming first or second in the 2019 European Parliament elections was a clear indication of our current political moment. Recent polling…
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Our ever-present hope
1 November 2019In challenging and uncomfortable times, this should bring comfort because we know that God is not fazed by the circumstances we are facing. We can look to history and remember that the church has navigated far more turbulent times in past. We can look to the church across the world which experiences persecution for their faith. In the three years since the vote in June 2016 to leave the European Union, politics has been dominated by attempts to achieve this and efforts to frustrate it.The…
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Faith, hope and love at the coming General Election
30 October 2019For those of you suffering from whiplash regarding all things Brexit and Westminster, here is a brief reminder of how we got here. Following the government’s revised agreement with the EU, Prime Minister Boris Johnson failed to get agreement for his expedited timetable for passage of the bill. This was despite agreement for the bill to receive detailed scrutiny by Parliament. Parliament previously refused to give backing for the Brexit agreement in a meaningful vote, so Johnson was obliged to…
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Parliament's Super Saturday: time to pray and offer hope
18 October 2019To use two of the metaphors he has appropriated to describe the final stages of the negotiations with the European Union, the Prime Minister has hailed it as an “excellent deal” but now faces another mountain to climb to get Parliament’s approval for the agreement. The DUP, the Conservative Party’s partners in government since the 2017 election, voted against Theresa May’s deal on all three occasions and have indicated that they remain opposed to the alternative arrangements her successor has…
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Book review: A Better Ambition
9 October 2019Tony Blair’s former spokesman and campaign director can sleep easy knowing that he is no longer invoked with quite the same frequency by those such as I who are passionate about Christians having a voice in politics and bringing God into all things they do. And the reason is because Tim Farron is now the essential reference point. Since his departure as Liberal Democrat leader immediately after the 2017 general election, the treatment and fate of Farron is the case study that must be grappled…
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