Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham, delivered a lecture in parliament last night, as part of the KLICE/Theos God and Government project.

In his lecture, the Bishop of Durham said that "The 'expenses' scandal which broke last summer, whose full repercussions are only now being worked out, was for many observers only the tip of the iceberg of a disillusionment with our whole political process."

Tom Wright added "Ever since the massive majorities of Margaret Thatcher, for most of the last generation we have had governments that could, and did, effectively ignore parliamentary process, with a very small number of people, sometimes only one, taking key decisions which nobody dared to oppose and which were rammed through Parliament with scant regard for proper debate."

Commenting on recent discussions regard the constitution, the Bishop argued that "constitutional reform seems to be being done on a wing and a prayer... while we on the Bishops' benches are happy to supply the prayer, we do want to be assured of the quality of the wing."

Tom Wright went on to explore the role of religion in politics and set out a biblical overview of God and Government. In the final part of his lecture, he spelled out some of the implications of a fresh political reading of the New Testament for where we are in our world today and where we might be going tomorrow.

"The day the church bends to the whim or dictate of secular government or ideology is the day it ceases to be the church," he said.

The 'God and Government' project includes three elements, a political theology book exploring the role of government, the lecture and a series of workshops for political activists.

The full text of the lecture can be read here.

To read Jonathan Chaplin's response, click here.

To listen to a podcast of the event, click here.