Something is stirring in the churches!

There's something new in the air around UK churches.

On a hot Monday afternoon in July, 1500 Christians mainly from African and Caribbean churches gathered outside Parliament in Westminster to protest against the government's proposed law to ban Incitement to Religious Hatred.

The intention of the legislation is good of course. No one likes religious hatred that, like race hatred, can divide communities and set neighbour against neighbour.

But this draconian new law will curtail Britain's ancient freedom of speech and our right to proclaim the Christian gospel. We know the gospel will always offend some people. After all, in the New Testament Paul writes about "the offence of the cross", and the gospel which is "a stumbling block and a rock of offence" to many.

With the new legislation, if you - like Christ himself - insist on telling people that Jesus is the only way to God, and people of other faiths or none find this offensive, you could end up in jail.

So it was encouraging to see so many Christians outside Parliament on that Monday. There was a forest of placards protesting against the new law and the singing was loud, beautiful and exhilarating. The noise could be heard inside the House of Commons where MPs were debating the law. It impacted the debate.

But it was most significant that this was the first time many of believers had taken part in political action. Before the protest, they had perhaps voted in the general election - although many had not even done that.

Yet here they were, making the Christian voice heard at the heart of government and the mother of parliaments.

It was similar to the huge prayer vigil held outside the BBC TV studios six months before when the blasphemous Jerry Springer - The Opera was broadcast, and the BBC received more objections by letter, email and phone than ever before in the history of broadcasting in Britain.

Then too, many Christians took action for the first time and made their views known forcefully and effectively.

It seems that at last a new day is dawning and the sleeping church is stirring. She has been marginalized, sidelined and ignored for too long by secular-minded authorities who pursued their own hostile agenda or followed their obsession with Islam.

Christians have a lot to say about what laws are being passed, how our children are being educated and the way society is being run.

Now it seems the churches have drawn a line in the sand. No more retreat. No longer will we be silent. Nor will we continue to cower apologetically in the corner while the powers-that-be decide what we can and cannot do.

So expect more political activism by believers. They're being encouraged by church leaders to write to their MPs or visit them in their advice surgeries. There will be further demonstrations and protests against the Religious Hatred Bill and other unchristian laws during the autumn. And my own party, the Christian Peoples Alliance (CPA), is taking steps to mobilise many to stand in elections, irrespective of their political experience or lack of it.

This autumn CPA is doing politics in a new way. The issues are important, the energy is available and the time is now. So for the first time in Britain a political party is organising a mobilisation event for Christians of all political persuasions and of none. The important thing is to get more Christians on the move.

CPA is holding a Political Empowerment Day at Kensington Temple in West London in mid September. The aim is to demystify politics, giving believers some basic campaigning tools and encouraging as many as possible to stand as Christians in the May local elections next year. It's not difficult to make a public impact in the local neighbourhood. This event is planned to give the faithful the confidence and the kit to do it.

The churches have something urgent to say to our fractured and increasingly fearful society. We will not be silenced or pushed in a corner by the secular authorities. The Empowerment Day is a first step in the long-term political mobilisation of the UK Christian community.

We are not ashamed of Christ and his gospel, and we are certain God's laws and Christian values are essential for good government.

God's people are finding their political voice at last, and we will be heard.