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this page Inter Faith in Action - Perspectives
Inter Faith and Mission in England by Andrew Wingate
As with the USA there is an issue around the age of those involved in inter faith work, particularly among Christians. The Hindus involved in dialogue ask me to bring along more young people to the meetings to correspond to the young people they bring. Young Christians tend to belong to exclusivist groups.
The statistics in England state there are fifty five million people. Last year's census was the first to include a question on religious affiliation. The Muslims in particular were interested to have such a question, which was voluntary. About ninety four percent answered the question. Muslim numbers were only one point six million. They were perhaps expecting a higher figure and it probably is a higher figure because the asylum seekers (who would not register) are one hundred thousand per year at the present time - the greatest number there has ever been, and about seventy percent of those are Muslims. In the city of Leicester for example there are ten thousand Somalis, many of who would probably not register. There are five hundred and sixty thousand Hindus, about three hundred and sixty thousand Sikhs, three hundred thousand Jews, one hundred and twenty thousand Buddhists. The Buddhist figure his higher than people expected because of white conversions to Buddhism, greater than any other religion. The Jewish figure is declining each year, many going to the United States or Israel or clustering in cities where they feel safe. In Leicester where I am the Director of Inter Faith Relations and Training Officer there are forty four percent nominal Christians. Those attending Church would be probably be ten percent of that or a little higher perhaps if you take all the churches. The other faith figure is thirty six percent - nearly all of those are Indians, mostly Gujuratis. Conversions to Christianity are happening in small but significant numbers among Iranian asylum seekers. This has been very surprising. The only conversions that take place from among asylum seekers are Iranians.
The oldest area for Christian dialogue for people with other faiths is of course with the Jewish community. Jews have long taken refuge in Britain. For a period there were no Jews here, after the Black Death they were sent away. So for a long time there was no anti-Semitic problem in Britain because there were no Jews. Oliver Cromwell brought back the Jews because he said 'You cannot be a Christian without a Jewish neighbour'. In recent times the Council for Christians and Jews has played a very important part in enabling the dialogue since World War II to become part of the national dialogue scene and in many ways has paved the way for other groups. Issues of Israel Palestine of course make this particularly sharp at the present time. However, following two recent attacks on Muslim graves which took place in Leicester there has been a deal of solidarity from the Jewish community about the destruction of these graves. Recent years have seen a significant growth in initiatives for dialogues with the other religions, Christians and Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and others. They are encouraged through the existence, in London, of the Inter Faith Network which is a focus for the Government and others in wanting to gauge the opinion of the other religions. This has encouraged local initiatives. So there is a map of local Councils of Faith and in Leicester, for example, there has been one since the mid 1980s and Michael Ipgrave has been a significant figure in its foundation and development. The Anglican presence there is still very significant. We also have a faith leaders meeting convened by the Bishop and the Bishop is trusted by all faiths and is often called 'our Bishop' by faith leaders of the Hindu and Muslim communities. This deals with contentious political and international issues and after 9/11 made the significant statement - 'An attack on one religion in our city would be considered an attack on us all' that is the NATO doctrine transferred to the inter religious field.
In Leicester we have a range of dialogue groups; Muslim Christian, Muslim Christian Women - which is much more lively in many ways, Hindu Christian, Hindu Muslim and a three faiths group- a so called Family of Abraham Group, as suggested by a Muslim Imam. These discuss contentious issues such as racism, faith schools, conversion, mission, asylum seekers, and refugees. They have engaged in common fasting, common fund raising for joint appeals for places like Afghanistan and the Middle East, Israel Palestine. We have had prayer publicly, with the media covering it, not together but alongside each other for the Iraq War and so on - showing solidarity against our government. I think it's partly because of the existence of this kind of group and their prior friendships that we have weathered a number of storms. In particular the post 9/11 period, the Iraq War period and the attempt of white racist groups to break up the harmony. There's an organisation called the British National Party, which is a very right-wing semi-fascist party, and they target Muslims quite unambiguously. It is illegal to attack races but not religions and the targeting of Muslims, gaining allies from certain helpful Hindus and Sikhs, has been in danger of disturbing the peaceful co-existence. In the North of England there have been riots and disturbances in a number of cities. There are now seventeen British National Party Councillors in the North of England, but none I think in London or the Midlands - may be one in the Midlands.
We have a National Office and Michael Ipgrave is that together, with a part time secretary - not just for the Church of England but for all the denominations put together. The reality of the Anglican establishment is good and bad. But one of the most significant aspects of both George Carey and Rowan Williams' leadership has been to enable confidence to grow among other faith communities that the Church of England basically is for them. Rowan Williams in particular was almost venerated amongst the Muslim community for his stance on the Iraq war and there were two million Christians, Muslims and secular groups who marched in London just before the Iraq war and we walked together carrying banners saying 'Not in Our name'. I travelled on a coach with fifty Muslims and three Christian priests and it was a wonderful experience of dialogue, particularly on the return journey when sacramentally they shared their food with us.
The present Archbishop has continued the initiative of George Carey in enabling a listening to Muslims exercise to take place in six cities, because each city is different. This has explored how Muslims and Christians interact, with a longer-term goal of forming a national group or forum for an ongoing listening initiative. Another major sector is in the economic and social regeneration of our major cities. They have been in flux because of the decline of industry and the need for regeneration economically and in a city like Leicester the Asians play a major part in this - Hindus there on the whole are not poor and their investment in the city is part of its regeneration. How can we enable them to feel fully part of our Local Council for example? The whole political scene in Leicester depends upon Muslim and Hindu votes. Muslims turned against the ruling Labour Party because of the Iraq war and the whole Council moved to Liberal Democrat control. This has made them realise their power in this respect.
There are big issues also about education. We have ninety church schools in our Diocese. Muslims want their own schools and I think we have to support them. They have a few private schools but are beginning to obtain State aided schools and I see this movement developing. As regards Christians, the education of Christians into the inter faith realities is a central part of my work. It is vital to increase the confidence of Christians in our cities who in many ways feel beleaguered, isolated and people of the past. The prominence of Hindu festivals, for example, on our streets and the fact that the Red Cross last Christmas took out of their shops all Christmas cribs for fear of offending the Muslims may fuel these feelings. Actually the Muslim Imam said that was a nonsense, but there is an over sensitivity from the multi cultural industry. Also, churches find it a very threatening situation to be in areas where there the population is perhaps eighty percent other faiths, mainly Muslim. Or again, where a congregation is forty people on a good Sunday whilst the mosque up the road has a regular congregation of five, six, even seven hundred. Michael Ipgrave and I are involved in the beginning of a study called 'Presence and Engagement' which is to enable churches in these areas to feel that they have a place, they are a sacramental presence within our multi religious context. These congregations need the support of the rest of the church because there are real dangers we will withdraw from those kinds of areas.
Finally, theological and biblical reflection is fundamental to how we consider all these issues. The link between our to keynote talks is very important. There is a danger of polarisation between the pluralists on the one hand and exclusivists on the other (forgive the labelling). There is a need to listen to each other, a need for intra Christian dialogue, a need for people not to feel superior to those who hold a different view. Rather we need to find the means to enable us together to grapple with the gospel command to do with mission along with the need to engage with the kind of social and national issues I have touched on whilst also sharing our faith at the deepest level. Those of us who may be on the more inclusivist side need to find a mandate and understanding of mission where we do not think that the salvation of those we are with depends on that mission, but that never the less we have a mission and need to discern what that mission is. Open Evangelicals I find are extremely committed to this kind of journey and have a zeal for mission that takes them into this kind of encounter. Our national Hindu Christian dialogue (which Michael and I again are involved with and Israel) interestingly has been very difficult. The Muslim Christian dialogue are, I have found, straight forward give as good as you take experiences. The National meetings that we have with Hindus are fraught with rocks. Many people in Britain, perhaps most have a very romantic view of Hinduism. I never hear the word dalit mentioned and if we want to mention it in our national group we have to think do we mention the difficult issues at the beginning or wait until we have grown up a trust? This is one of the issues we have not raised but I know amongst the Hindus that come to our group there will not be one dalit, they have been written out of the map. Also the whole issue of conversion as in South Africa is with us also. We've spent two years trying to draft a goodwill statement that can be agreed by Hindus and each time we seem to be at an agreement they slip back from it This is because behind everything the Hindutva ideology is very strong amongst the leadership and money of course comes over to us from that. The VHP and the RSS are in Leicester and so on.
A word of encouragement about the 'patch' Sathi Clarke talked about in the keynote addresses. I've been very heartened on three occasions to be asked to be the patch or for Christians to be the patch. One was when there was a clash between Muslims and Jews and I was asked to chair a meeting of six Muslims and six Jews involved to try to get them to listen to each other. Second was when the local Islamic Institute, a very renowned place, asked us Christians to advise them on the setting up of a course for Chaplaincy work. We are now the advisers, half of the teachers and half of the examiners for that course because Muslims say Christians know about Chaplaincy - Imams are not used to that field. Finally the set up of the Muslim Hindu dialogue group came because of our Christian groups and the wish from one of the Muslim leaders to engage in that even more difficult dialogue. I am of course not part of that but he discussed that with me and now that is going along. In this dialogue Gujurat of course becomes the major issue very quickly and its very good to have the Bishop of Gujurat here and I hope we can hear about his situation at some point.
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