IN A Lords debate that emphasised the importance of integration to community cohesion, Lord Rook of Wimbledon — a founder of the Good Faith Partnership, and faith adviser to two Labour leaders, Ed Miliband and Sir Keir Starmer — made his maiden speech as a newly created life peer.
Formerly the Revd Dr Russell Rook, he grew up in the Salvation Army, was ordained in 2023/24, and is now a non-stipendiary minister at St Dionis’s, Parsons Green, in west London. “As an Anglican priest, I know what it is to need regular mercy and instruction. I am thankful for grace when I have erred, and for kind and gentle correction where necessary,” he said in the debate, last week.
“As a newcomer and ‘rookie’ member, if noble Lords will pardon the pun, I will no doubt require both of those for some time to come.”
The Bishop of Lichfield, Dr Michael Ipgrave, took the opportunity to thank Lord Rook for “the work he has done over the years with the Churches, including the Church of England, in which he is an ordained priest, and with communities of other faiths. I commend his tireless advocacy, as a key adviser to the Government, of the important role that faith plays in the life of our country.”
Dr Ipgrave expressed a desire to underline how “religious education in schools plays an important role in enabling understanding of different cultures, religions, and world views, equipping pupils from an early age with the knowledge and tools to understand and thrive in a multicultural society. However, RE is too often neglected as a subject.” He wanted to know what the Government was doing about this in its community-cohesion efforts.
Lord Dholakia (Liberal Democrat), a Hindu, was positive about Christianity. “Many of the efforts for good race relations have their roots in the work of churches in the early days, and this continues even today. I thank them for what they are doing.”
Lord Griffiths (Labour), a former President of the Methodist Conference, testified to his multifaith experience of the University of Roehampton, “when it appointed as its new Chancellor the person who introduced this debate, the noble Baroness Lady Verma. Methodist plus Anglican plus Roman Catholic plus humanist now have the coherent head of a Hindu who is helping us all to see even more than we saw before.”
Baroness Scott (Conservative) was concerned at the loss of national traditions in “culturally a Christian country, and people from all faiths and backgrounds can enjoy the Christmas and Easter breaks, even though they may not be Christians themselves”. She asked about “the role that public institutions have to play in fostering inclusivity without seeking to undermine our traditional cultural values”.
Responding for the Government, Lord Khan said that “integration is the foundation on which social cohesion is built.”
Summing up the debate, Baroness Verma (Conservative) appealed to religious responsibility and the notion of political correctness. “Whatever faith you come from, if your faith is doing something wrong, we should collectively come out and call it out. That is the strength of a good, strong democracy. If we undermine it, the vacuums are then filled by people who generate hate.”
The motion, to take note “of the role of integration in reducing barriers to community cohesion in the United Kingdom”, was agreed.