LETTER: Divine vision for Horsham

On 1 May 2013, you published an interview with Cllr Helena Croft: ‘Preacher turned politician combines Church and Council. Theo Cronin speaks to new deputy leader Helena Croft’.
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In that interview, Theo Cronin noted that Cllr Croft was only elected to council in May 2011 ‘…her ascendancy to the top table at Horsham District Council has been spectacular’.

Asked about her objectives as deputy leader, she replied: “Number one is to support the leader, that’s the deputy’s job,” she said, referring to Ray Dawe (Con, Chantry) “We work very well together,” she continued.

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She was asked what difference she hoped to make. “Put it this way, when I first came on to the council and I looked at the cabinet, they were all a certain demographic,” she said. “Because of the Broadbridge Heath Leisure Centre issue there was a sense of being a little bit out of touch.

“I am not someone who is ingrained in politics and has been for 20-odd years. I am the opposite to that. What I have to offer is a fresh perspective. And to challenge some of the political status quos of doing things a certain way. I don’t think within this political box, I think outside of it.”

Theo Cronin spent a good part of the interview probing ways her faith and church influenced her political journey. “I wouldn’t link it specifically to Kingdom Faith, I don’t speak on behalf of Kingdom Faith.”

Mrs Croft’s declaration of interests on becoming a councillor states she is a pastor at Kingdom Faith and that she only stepped down as a Director at the church due to council responsibilities.

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At the same time, however, Theo Cronin quoted Kingdom Faith’s ambitions, as stated on its website, ‘Being an apostolic church, we have a strong belief that the raising up and releasing of men and women into areas of influence and authority within their regions will be a key in turning the tide of the godless society’.

There used to be a recording of Cllr Helena Croft preaching at Crawley’s Kingdom Faith (25 March 2012) but it has been removed interestingly from their website recently.

However she said:

‘... In the recent last 12 months I have also been elected onto Horsham District Council as a local ward member for actually working in faith churches in the whole region up to Roffey Place. They have asked me for Horsham town to say can I come up with a vision for what Horsham town will look like in ten years’ time, 20 years’ time, and I thought: Yes, I can do that, because we know it, don’t we, as the church.

‘God speaks to us and gives us vision for the town and what I’ve come to realise within the town is that, you know, the world they don’t have the answers, they are looking for them and God has given us, as the church, the answers.

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‘So, when he connects the two, something powerful can happen, and again you know because I work with the most broken women, particularly within society, to be able to walk within the corridors of power, where the real decisions are made, just causes such an enabling to happen and I believe we are going to see a lot more of that, a lot more of just the influence that God wants to give us as individual members of the church. To really be involved in changing lives on the ground.

‘It’s a good thing isn’t it? We can believe that for Crawley, for your local government? ...God said to me years ago: ‘You know Helena my word in your mouth is no less powerful than my word in my mouth.’ The important thing is that it’s his word.”

We may reasonably take Cllr Croft at her word when she says she does not speak for Kingdom Faith.

But it may be less than reassuring to her electors in Roffey North to think she could be claiming divine endorsement for a housing development strategy centred around a huge development in North Horsham (conceived by a profit-driven private developer) against the wishes of most – while also motivated by blind loyalty to HDC’s leader Cllr Dawe.

HARRY SHUTT

Allingham Gardens, Horsham

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Editor’s note: the County Times offered Helena Croft the opportunity to respond to the issues raised in this letter. Mrs Croft said: “Is the writer unhappy about the council’s Preferred Strategy? Or is his beef with my Christian faith, that I share with many of my colleagues in council who are trying to make a difference? I speak from the heart on the issues that matter, and always will. Having a local plan in place really matters because it will enable us to hold developers to account and gain the maximum community facilities such as a much needed medical/health centre for the people of Horsham, along with other benefits. If our letter writer has views on this then let’s hear them, but attacking me for my faith? Come on, stick to the issues.”