One of my earliest memories was to go with my father canvassing in the West Ward of Reigate where my father was standing to be a councillor to serve on Reigate Borough Council in the early 1960's. l remember going into a house where a family showed us the damp patches on the walls and they asked my father what he was going to do about it when he was elected as councillor. I do not remember his reply, but I do recall thinking at the age of seven what an important job a councillor had to do. He must have done something good because he was elected as borough councillor for the West Ward with the largest number of recorded votes in living memory.

An occasion such as this provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the values which lie at the heart of local government.

I had occasion to serve as chaplain to the mayor of Nuneaton and Bedworth in the millennium year. I was struck how very important the role of the mayor was as the first citizen of the borough; a reference point; a focus for social cohesion. The mayor is someone to look up to and to respect, who by wearing that chain and being seen in and around the borough gives assurance and comfort to many ordinary people in a fragmented and divided world. You see, John (councillor John Hayward, Mayor or Bognor), you really matter to the people of Bognor.

I also observed the workings of council meetings at first hand, having done the prayers. Much of the realpolitik of council meetings is to do with comparatively minor but important local issues but sadly in my view party politics intervenes too much, too often.

Today is a occasion to rise above this and examine what really matters in local and national government. It lies with that unpopular word ‘service’. ‘Service’ which is disinterested and has no political axe to grind. Experience as a parish priest suggests to me what people want to know is that somebody in authority cares, somebody is prepared to listen to their needs, and that somebody takes an interest in them as people not just names on a register of voters.

I think that is what my father did with those people in West Ward, Reigate. I think that most people enter local government because they really do believe that they can improve the lot of their fellow human kings. That is good.

This week I was actively encouraging a young man of 22, not in this area, to stand for parliament because he believes in improving the lot of his town in the Midlands. And the only way that attitude can be sustained is by serving the interests of others and looking to represent the interest of others not only to their fellow councillors but to the officers and the statutory agencies. This means putting ambition, self interest firmly to one side. It means looking to what is the common good for the community and rigorously applying that thinking in action on a sustained, applied basis .

I am sure that John, our mayor, believes all this and does all this, as do all the councillors in Bognor. If you like, this sermon is an aide memoire. About the imperative requirement to serve. And let us remember that at the heart of the Christian Gospel is the call to love ones neighbour as oneself. One laudable way of doing this is to serve as a councillor in local government. It is a high calling if it is carried out in this spirit. Let us never forget that the grace and love of God through prayer and the sacraments, which are dear to John, are always there to be received, thereby we gain all that we need, to love our neighbour as ourselves and so TO SERVE.