This is a bit of a stream of consciousness mind dump!
When I was in my teens, I don't recall voting ever being mentioned in church. What I learned about the democratic process I owe to my Girls' Brigade Queen's Award, which required us to study UK politics (of the time), understand how local government worked, attend a council meeting and answer exam questions on the whole of this! My Dad's life long inteterest in politics, and his dyed-in-the-wool Conservative outlook was also influential - from a young age it was drilled into all of us that we must always vote (and vote Tory, for that matter!).
I recall what I think was the first General Election in which I was eilgible to vote and rousing my Dad's ire as I cast my vote for the newly emergent SDP... so much so that I never dared vote other than his party line for a long time!
A lot of water has flown under the political bridge since then, and my views on politics (more than my views on issues) have changed a lot. Having been schooled by my Dad in the merits of the current first past the post system, it was a long time before I began to think more deeply about this, eventually coming to the view that some form of proprotional representation had to be better... whether it be the Single Transferrable Vote or (one of) the Alternative Vote systems, none is perfect, but increasing they would suit my fence-sitting, floating-voter self better. This time around I narrowed my field to three out of seven candidates, and would have much preferred to rank those than choose one... ah well. I made my choice and am at peace about that decision. My Dad would be pleased I voted... but not about the three I picked from!
This year I've allocated three Sundays to focus on topics around the election... and so have many other ministers in many other churches (indeed for some it has been five or six week!). That seems like a step change, as if the church is finally waking up to its role in helping to shape the wider society and the need to get it's collective hands dirty.
I'm apprehensive about Sunday, and I've said so many, many times. I'm not someone who is excited and energised by party politics or the electoral process, but I recognise the need to engage with it, and to think hard and pray hard about it. I'm more interested in what might be termed micro-politics, things like the choices I make in the supermarket, where I bank, which brand of cat food I buy (though at the moment I have no choice on that one). I'm glad there are Christians interested in macro-politics, party politics, national and international politics... the challenge is how best to support them.
As my old Dad used to say, people died to get you the vote, so get out and vote. And whoever you vote for remember that's just the start of it - we mustn't abdicate our responsibility to work for the changes we claim to desire whether local, national or global.