Christian politicians and Church leaders gathered in Westminster Hall for the National Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast, where Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron warned that politics cannot provide the ultimate hope people are searching for.
Around 650 guests, including approximately 200 MPs and peers, attended the event on Tuesday, which brings together parliamentarians, Church leaders and Christian organisations to pray for Parliament, government and public life.
Delivering the keynote speech, Farron said politics remains an important way of serving others, but warned against placing ultimate hope in political parties, leaders or institutions.
He told guests that governments and political movements are temporary, saying: "If we place our hope in this party or that, in this leader or that, we are going to be disappointed, crushed even."
"Every government is finite, every regime, kingdom, or empire ends up in dust one day, but there is one in whom you can place your trust, whose rule lasts forever, and who is not just awesome and reliable, but also loves you," the MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale said.
He added: "Hope isn't a party, hope isn't an ideology, hope isn't a philosophy. Hope is a person, and his name is Jesus."
Referencing Jesus' words in John's Gospel, Farron said: "Jesus says this: 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.' He could not be any clearer."
"If Jesus is who he says he is, then literally everything changes," he concluded.
The breakfast's main speaker was Clare Williams-Sarpong, founder of Real Questions and an associate speaker at the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics, who spoke on the theme "Hope for the Future".
Drawing on the Biblical account of Bartimaeus, the blind man healed by Jesus, Williams-Sarpong warned against expecting politics to provide answers it cannot deliver.
"Politics is a good servant, but it is a terrible saviour," she said. "No person, no party, no institution can bear the weight of ultimate hope."
She said Bartimaeus represents a universal human longing for change and restoration. "Whether it's first-century Jericho or modern Britain today, hope is universal."
She concluded by encouraging those in public life to continue serving others while placing their hope beyond politics.
"We are invited to steward the hopes of those whom we serve, to keep our own hearts soft and not hardened by disappointment."
