THERE ARE “fun times ahead”. That is how the journalist David Walker concluded his contribution to Analysis (Radio 4, Thursday of last week). His intelligent report on the changing boundaries between Church and state in Britain presents a challenging message. For those who care about such things, it is required listening.

This was not a debate about whether religion has a place in politics. This was about what faith groups do in our communities, and the extent to which they facilitate government social policy — questions that are too often ignored when the Church in England is scrutinised by the media.

David Miliband has recently sought to enrol bishops in support of government environmental policy, and the Chancellor has been talking to the Pope about how to tackle world poverty: just two examples among many of the current Government’s apparent belief in the efficacy of church involvement in social policy.

At the same time, the Equality Act 2006 — which includes the recently debated issue of gay adoption — has created a number of conflict areas for liberal and faith agendas. According to the Revd Richard Kirker of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, the Government’s mistake has been to pay too much attention to the Church on social issues.

But, for all Mr Kirker’s excitable polemic, the most powerful voice was that of Frank Field MP, who, while not in sympathy with the Roman Catholic stance on gay adoption, criticised the Government for having little idea what good work faith groups have done in communities for centuries.

Last week, on Monday, we heard a convincing and moving testament to Mr Field’s sagacity. Pilgrims From Gangland (Radio 4) told of a pilgrimage to Mecca taken by 12 youths from Birmingham who had spent most of their adult lives involved in crime. This rites-of-passage story is hardly new, but the setting — the baking hot streets of Mecca and Medina — made this a tale of extreme redemption.

Whether it was the lack of food (the pilgrimage took place during Ramadan) and constant praying that made our pilgrims break down in tears, one cannot say. But there was no doubt that the treatment worked — possibly too well. One of them is now preaching to his former friends on street corners about the evils of drug-taking, while another is intent upon a career in the probation service. I can see a follow-up documentary in the pipeline.

Understanding the Islamic world and its mentality, and then communicating that understanding to the Anglo-Saxon, Christian West, has become of consuming concern for William Dalrymple, author of several books about India and the Near East.

There is a great deal more to this Cambridge-educated traveller than the expected eccentric manner and white flannel suit, not least his taste in music, as revealed in Private Passions (Radio 3, last Sunday).

Yet one always wonders about such programmes: are the guests’ choices determined by love of the music, or by a desire to promote a certain image. Does William Dalrymple really carry on his MP3 player exclusively Indian folk music and songs of the troubadours? I can hardly believe it.