The Rt Hon John Denham, MP, Secretary of State at the Dept of Communities and Local Government gave a speech on Inter Faith Relations and Politics at Methodist Church House before an audience who included members of the Christian, Hindu, Jain, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh faiths. The event was organised by the Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI) and chaired by Bishop Angelos, moderator of the Churches' Inter Religious Network. In his speech, Mr Denham reflected positively on the relationship between government and faith communities and how they had worked together in the past, did so today, and should continue to do so in the future. To read a copy of the text of the speech click on the following link: http://www.communities.gov.uk/
Pictured below are Revd Bob Fyffe General Secretary of CTBI, Bishop Angelos and John Denham who answered questions from the audience after his speech.
There was a genuine spirit of dialogue and mutual respect during the question and answer session. It was good to hear the Secretary of State, who at the beginning of his speech described himself as a ‘secular humanist’, reject the idea that there was a secularist conspiracy to marginalise religion: ‘first and foremost, faith must be respected and its power acknowledged by government’. Mr Denham stated that his government believed that Christianity continued to make a distinctive contribution to national life and that the members of the different faith communities had enriched British society. As I listened to Mr Denham's speech I was reminded of the Cantle Report, to which he made reference during one of this answers. In his report Cantle emphasised that it was in towns like Southall and Leicester where different religions are celebrated in schools, the community and local government that there is community harmony. 'Religion is part of the solution, not the problem'.
