Above is the official CofE prayer for the forthcoming General Election. It makes claims on behalf of participatory democracy which no Christian can or should make – that it reveals the will of God: ‘as we discover your will for our country’.

Adolf Hitler achieved the Chancellorship by democratic means. Does this mean that the Nazi regime was God’s will for Germany? Nearer home: Is a government in the United Kingdom which upholds and enacts abortion on demand until birth, permissive euthanasia, same-sex marriage and transsexual equality revealing the will of God? What is God’s view on nuclear weapons? And in what way can it be said to be decided at the ballot box?

Before the Church of England accelerates its Gadarene stampede to catch up with the zeitgeist, it should at least consider that the democratic process may as well (and often does) result in plain contradiction to the Word of God.

This is not a prayer, but an incitement to civic duty.