To participate and to encourage others to do the same by setting aside apathy and cynicism – this is the heartfelt appeal launched by the Anglican Church to the faithful with a view to inviting them to play an active role in the election campaign which has already begun and will culminate in the appointment of a new Westminster government on 8 June. “Putting on a hustings event for candidates, volunteering for a candidate, or simply making sure to vote” – these are the suggestions that the two Archbishops at the top of the Anglican hierarchy, Justin Welby and John Sentamu, put forward in a statement that was released in all parishes, and university and hospital chaplaincies. The statement reminds the faithful that this election, ahead of the negotiations that will take the UK out of the EU, “is being contested against the backdrop of deep and profound questions of identity” and that the best “British and Christian” values include “education and social support for all, reception of migrants in need, and respect for different religious identities”. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York ended their statement by urging the new Parliament to be elected to “improve citizens’ religious literacy” since “the assumptions of secularism are not a reliable guide to the way the world works, nor will they enable us to understand the place of faith in other people’s lives”.