| Closing reflections
Brian Pearce
Director, Inter Faith Network for the UK
I am very glad that in some of the closing remarks
emphasis was put on the fact that today we have not been saying:
"Here is a model which everyone ought to be following in local inter
faith work." This point cannot be emphasised enough. We are not
offering an evolutionary chart, like one where you start with an amoeba
and end with homo sapiens, and in this case start with an informal
local inter faith group and end up with a fully representative council of
faiths! I do not think that is how we should see it. We need different
inter faith instruments for different purposes, and for different
opportunities. The idea of sustaining a more informal group alongside the
development of a more representative structure is a very interesting one.
Richard Tetlow was talking about the situation here in
Birmingham. I live in London and know that there are very great
difficulties in terms of an inter faith structure strategy covering the
whole of Birmingham or covering the whole of London. There may be a need
for such a structure to relate to the Birmingham City Council or the new
Greater London Authority. But there is also a need for initiatives at a
more local and neighbourhood level as well, and those structures may need
to be of a different kind.
Not surprisingly, the issue of representation has been
highlighted today as a very difficult one indeed. We were talking about
that specifically in one of the workshops but it has obviously come up in
others as well. I think it is important that we should not lose heart
because of the difficulties involved in this and that we should recognise
that we have to start, pragmatically, where we can. It would be a tragedy
if we decided as faith communities that the difficulties over creating
structures which can be regarded as representative are so great that faith
communities need to pull back from the kind of involvement now open to us
in our civic life at both local and national level, about which we have
been hearing today. Maybe it is a question initially of trying to form a
structure which does not necessarily "represent" in the sense of
speaking on behalf of the different faith communities, but is
"representative of" and therefore can be a genuine sounding
board which can articulate the concerns of the different faith communities
in a way in which local authorities, public bodies and central government
can place some reliance in what is being said.
Another message came out strongly for me. It is very
easy for us to think: "Why doesn’t local government fund setting up
local inter faith structures? Why doesn’t national Government fund this?
Why aren’t we given more resources?" There is a prospect, as we
have heard, of those resources coming forward, but this will only happen
if local authorities, central Government and other public bodies see that
there is value in it for them in terms of the work that is being done. It
is up to the faith communities to decide whether they want to respond and
inter faith structures will need to be able to deliver a good quality
contribution if they want support from the public purse.
This can seem disheartening to all of us who know how
very time-consuming and difficult inter faith work can be (and, of course,
equally how rewarding and joyful it can be). But we also need to take into
account the time scale. There has been talk of doors that may close. They
may close, and it is important to take advantage of the opportunities that
are here now. But we also need to recognise that we are not dealing with a
process which is going to be completed within one year, five years or even
a decade. It is the work of more than one generation, which is one reason
why it is very important indeed, as has come out in a number of the
earlier comments, to try to involve more young people in inter faith work.
We will be preparing a report on this conference which
we will ensure that you receive. I hope that there will be an opportunity
for you to reflect on the material in that and that you will suggest to us
particular issues or topics on which you would like subsequent meetings or
conferences to focus. The contributions which we have had today have been
of a very high quality and we are grateful to those who took the time to
come and be with us.
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