Rees: ‘My faith has given me resilience and a sense of purpose’

Marvin Rees has never hidden his strong Christian faith but a new interview has given the most incisive look yet at how his beliefs shape him as a person and as a politician.

Bristol’s mayor worships at Hope Community Church in Hotwells, a stone’s throw from the proposed Western Harbour development.

He says that during his time as mayor, he has asked churches to “make an offer to the city. And from that, we’ve seen churches in Bristol stepping up, and that’s been a very real source of pride for me.”

In the wide-ranging interview with Premier Christianity, Rees said that he has “always had a sense of the infinite, and (been) a person of God”.

Ever since being invited to a church with his mother at the age of ten, he says, “with various degrees of commitment and success on my part, I’ve been trying to be a disciple”.

How has his faith changed over time? “I remember being quite literal and explicit about my faith early on. I think it’s much messier now.”

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Forty-nine-year-old Rees says that he is “much more comfortable with complexity today. And risk.”

He said: “I suppose where I’ve got to with my faith is that it has to do something. It has to do something with my fallen self, in an imperfect country with an imperfect political party in a broken political system in a fallen world – somehow I’ve got to line all these things up and try to make something happen.

“And you know what? Some days it won’t happen. But my calling is not necessarily to win every time. My calling is to take the talents I’ve got in the face of the challenges and opportunities facing me and try to make good things happen for my fellow human beings.”

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Aside from politics, Christianity has been a running theme in Rees’ life. His first job was working as a youth coordinator with Tearfund, a Christian anti-poverty charity, where he spent two years.

He then spent a year on Sojourners, a Christian social justice magazine and organisation which is based out of Washington DC.

While in America he completed a masters degree in global economic development at Eastern University, a Christian university in Pennsylvania where he studied courses including biblical economics.

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Listen to Marvin Rees talking about the culture of the city at Hope Community Church:

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Has it been difficult being a Christian in public life?

“I wouldn’t say so, to be honest. I mean, you get your trolls. Some rag started to call me ‘Reverend Rees’ and all that type of stuff and said I was trying to introduce a theocracy. But so much of that trolling stuff is such nonsense. It just washes over you.

“I don’t want to give you a non-Christian image here but, the way I see it is if there’s a 60-year-old man in his underpants late at night writing mean things to people on the internet, you just think: ‘What has your life come to?’ I mean, you know, take up a hobby, pick up a frisbee, do something!

“If I say that I grew up living with my mum, we spent time in a refuge, life was tough, there was a bit of domestic violence and all that type of stuff, and me having a sense of calling, purpose and meaning came from my belief in God and helped me escape the circumstances of my childhood, what business is it of yours to say: ‘No, you’re not allowed to believe that’?

“I’m saying my faith was important to me. It wasn’t a vehicle I attached myself to. It was a part of me that gave me resilience, and gave me a sense of purpose that I then pursued. So in many ways I’m quite belligerent about it.

“But judge me by the results. We’re trying to build affordable homes, feed kids, decarbonise the economy. We’re trying to build a mass transit system, trying to get more people of all faiths involved in public life.”

Main photo: @marvinjrees

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