INTERFAITH dialogue in the UK has “almost collapsed” since 7 October, the Archbishop of Canterbury told the House of Lords on Thursday.
In the final day of debate on the King’s Speech, Archbishop Welby said that “tensions are high”, owing to the conflict in Gaza. He has repeatedly called for a ceasefire and the return of hostages (News, 23 May).
In his speech on Thursday, he praised the work of the Foreign Office’s conflict, stabilisation, and mediation team, which, he said, had been “enormously effective”.
“The cost — financial, human, and every other — of trying to prevent conflict is far smaller than the cost of war once it has broken out,” he said, and urged further investment in peace-building and conflict-prevention.
He also called for UK foreign policy to be “religiously literate”, and advised wide engagement with NGOs and faith groups.
In his valedictory speech before retirement in the autumn (News, 3 May), the Bishop of Worcester, Dr John Inge, reiterated the Archbishop’s message, saying that the effectiveness of international development would depend in part on an “awareness of the role that transnational religious actors play in international affairs”.
Dr Inge has been a longstanding advocate for the aid budget to return to 0.7 per cent of gross national income (GNI). In response, Lord Coaker, a minister in the Ministry of Defence, said that the Government sought to return aid spending to 0.7 per cent of GNI “as soon as we fiscally can”.
In April, Dr Inge had responded to news that part of the budget was being spent on housing asylum-seekers in the UK: “The overseas aid budget should be restricted to — wait for it — overseas aid!” (News, 19 April).
Development, he said on Thursday, was “an indispensable contributor to peace and human flourishing”, and he welcomed the Government’s manifesto commitment to creating “a world free from poverty on a liveable planet”.
Tackling sovereign debt, particularly in Africa, was a necessary step, he said, as, otherwise, lower-income countries “will not deal with the impacts of the climate crisis”.
Noting that most debt was owed to private creditors in agreements governed by English law, he suggested that the Government introduce legislation to incentivise them to “participate fully in multilateral debt-relief initiatives”.
He closed his final speech by saying: “Jesus tells us to love our neighbour as ourselves, implying that it is in loving our neighbour, wherever they may be in our global village, that we properly love ourselves. That insight has always been at the heart of all that is best in British values. I pray that it may remain so.”
Lord Houghton, a former General, paid tribute to Dr Inge’s contributions to the House of Lords, his “passion for people, cycling, and international affairs”, and his “fascination with Edwardian frock coats, episcopal toppers, and panama hats — sometimes other people’s”.
The Bishop of Winchester, the Rt Revd Philip Mounstephen, spoke about freedom of religion and belief (FoRB): a topic about which, as Bishop of Truro, he wrote a report for the previous government (News, 8 July 2019).
FoRB violations had wide-reaching effects, he said: alongside the physical aspects of persecution, “constant fear and stress undermine both community well-being and personal health”, and “millions are forced to flee their homes to escape persecution, leading to immense humanitarian challenge.”
He called on the Government to appoint a special envoy for FoRB, reflecting the post that the Conservative MP Fiona Bruce had held during the previous government.
“Embedding FoRB at the heart of foreign policy and appointing a special envoy will simply mean that we are more effective actors globally. In today’s world, we cannot afford to be anything less,” he said.