Affirmation
WE THE Bishops of the Anglican Communion, assembled in the Lambeth Conference of 2022, therefore affirm our commitment to witnessing to Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour by faithful, Christlike service and in humble proclamation of this good news among people of different faiths and beliefs.
We recognise that our commitment to the “Five Marks of Mission” situates relations with people of other religious traditions within the mission of God in Christ, understood in a holistic sense, and each context and relationship will determine how these “Marks of Mission” are held together.
In a world where there are increasing challenges which affect all our communities, how we work with other religious traditions for the common good testifies to our Lambeth Conference 2022 participation in the gracious work of God beyond the Church. The Covid-19 pandemic has been one contemporary example of this, and the pressing challenge of climate change is another.
In a world of inter- and intra-religious violence, how we are agents of peace-making with neighbours from other faiths goes to the heart of the good news of the gospel.
In a world of growing restrictions on religious freedom and belief, and heightened persecution of Christians, how the Anglican Communion (in the words of Generous Love) may “offer our solidarity and support to Christians who have to witness to their faith in difficult circumstances” honours our understanding of being part of the one Body of Christ, in sorrow and suffering, as well as in joy and resurrection.
Calls
Based on our commitment to work for the common good with those of other religious traditions and beliefs, to neighbourly peace-making across religious communities, and to solidarity with our Christian sisters and brothers in struggling contexts for interfaith relations, we therefore make the following calls:
To Bishops across the Anglican Communion, where possible in your local context, to forge a new friendship with a leader of another religious tradition, modelling our commitment to peace-making and the common good.
To leaders of other faith communities, to join with us in exploring how we can enable more effective collaborative work on tackling climate change and other challenges to our shared environment, alleviating poverty, and care for the vulnerable.
To the Anglican Inter Faith Commission: to find funding for research by clergy or lay practitioners from across the Anglican Communion within a specialist track of interfaith relations with a view to resourcing a new generation of Anglican scholar-practitioners.
To Bishops and Provinces of the Anglican Communion, where it is safe and possible, to set up links with those parts of our Communion facing hostility and persecution so that there can be exchange of information, prayerful support, and solidarity in friendship.
To all of us who are disciples of Christ, to commit to pray for the persecuted Church in its efforts to continuing to be a gentle presence even in the face of hostility and the struggle to form strong relationships with neighbours of other faiths.
To all of us who are disciples of Christ, to witness to our neighbours of other religious traditions in humility, in word and deed, and through humble service.
Follow-up
The Inter Faith Commission will promote and encourage:
- Practical ways to follow up outcomes of the call to a new friendship across faiths
- Practical ways to follow up outcomes of the call to collaborative action with those of other religious traditions
- Establishing research scholarships: delegated committee to oversee this, covering budgets for doctoral programmes, accommodation, etc.
- Practicalities of matching arrangements: how to identify the contexts looking for solidarity, how to make this light-touch: should it build on existing links or be separate or overlap?
‘Source of beauty and harm’
THE darker side of religion must not be ignored when engaging in friendly, safe interfaith dialogue, the bishops at the Lambeth Conference heard, writes Paul Handley.
The keynote address in the plenary on interfaith relations was delivered by the Bishop of Chelmsford, Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani. She briefly told the story of her family upbringing in Iran, including the murder of her brother and their exile in England.
Her message was that, when engaging in interfaith relations, it was necessary to hold together contradictory experiences. She had known Islam as a great civilisation that had given the world material, educational, artistic, and spiritual gifts. But, she said: “I have also known Islam as a force that has done my family in Iran great harm.”
In her encounters with Muslims in the safety of England, she said that she sought to be honest, asking gently whether they were willing to condemn this darker element of their faith, just as Christians needed to be willing to condemn such things as the crusades and, in the present day, far-right Christianity.
Her message to those fortunate enough to live in countries where it was possible to engage in dialogue with people of other faiths in safety was: “Do not forget your brothers and sisters around the world who are suffering.”
Christians who live as minorities in place where they are threatened with persecution were often unable to engage in overt dialogue and witness. In Iran, for example, the Christian community was not acknowledged to exist. But the call to witness had “nothing to do with standing on street corners and shouting Bible verses at people passing by”. Christians living under threat were none the less able to exercise hospitality and generosity.
After her address, the bishops heard in turn about a host of successful and thriving encounters between Christians and other faiths.
From Kenya, the allaying of historical suspicion by visits to each other’s places of worship and joint actions between young adherents to Islam and Christianity; from India, a concerted response to Covid (including the distribution of masks capable of tying round Sikh turbans); from Canada, the replacement of a prayer for the conversion of the Jews with one that asks forgiveness and reconciliation (“Take away all pride and prejudice in us, and grant that we, together with the people whom thou didst first make thine own, may attain to the fulness of redemption which thou hast promised”); and from Egypt, a picture of how the Muslim and Christian religions interrelate in an organic way: “My neighbour’s faith and mine do not simply coexist, they interact and corelate,” the Archbishop of Alexandria, Dr Sami Fawsi, said.