Archbishop of Canterbury’s Visit to Burnley

5th November 2009 

The Faith Centre, the crown jewel of the Building Schools for the Future programme in Burnley, played host to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Anglican Communion, on bon-fire night. The evening began with a supper from a diverse mixture of cultures and an opportunity for people to network. Bishop John Goddard of Burnley led the day and the event was attended by a veritable who’s who of Lancashire’s Interfaith scene, as well as by other dignitaries, including Bishop Nicholas Reade of Blackburn and the Mayor and Mayoress of Burnley.

After the meal, the guests moved into the faith room and the first speaker was Margaret Richardson, project manager of the BBB Bridge Project, an interfaith initiative that brings children from different backgrounds together through twinning exercises, classroom work and after school activities. Margaret then introduced her young protégé, Shonee, one of the children that has benefited from the work of the Bridge. Shonee spoke with confidence and aplomb of her good experiences at the Bridge.

Margaret and Shonee were followed by Father Michael Walters of Building Bridges in Burnley, who spoke about the journey of Building Bridges in Burnley from its inception to the interfaith pilgrimages to London, Rome and most recently, Jerusalem. He noted that a slogan written on the wall dividing the people of Israel and Palestine that captured what BBB was trying to achieve, ‘Fear Builds Walls and Faith Builds Bridges.’

Abdul Hamid Qureshi, former Chairman of Lancashire Council of Mosques and BBB officer spoke next about the Muslim perspective of Burnley’s Interfaith history, including the massively successful Church Open Day. He finished by highlighting his aspirations for a stronger society with family values as its core.

Finally, Archbishop Rowan began his address with an anecdote about an Anglican Parish Church, St Philip’s, in Leicester and how they converted most of their church into an interfaith centre, to extend hospitality to their majority Muslim community. Their approach was based on developing relationships and now they have a centre thriving with diversity. Next he noted the ‘Big Ticket Issues’ for faith communities in Britain as Family, Environment and Education, and then went on to explain how these need to become shared priorities for the faith communities to move beyond just Cohesion. He felt that the key to this was by better understanding of hospitality and developing a common vision and common action.

The Archbishop also noted that the government’s view of seeing faith communities as a problem that required damage limitation is also a problem. The government’s needs to turnaround and begin to see faith communities as an asset that will aid in building sustainable human society. Faith communities need to provide a mutual service of being there for one another, and paraphrasing England’s Chief Rabbi, build a home together that is bigger than cohesion and more just than tolerance.

After the Archbishop’s address, he proceeded to answer questions that had been noted by participants during supper, varying from the situation of minority faiths, the ‘imagined’ conflict between Islam and Christianity, Gaza and the issues in the Church of England. The Archbishop answered the questions with frank responses that drew smiles from the audience. One particularly poignant thought the Archbishop shared with the listeners was about the gift of faith, a realisation of an ultimate truth that gives each of us an insight into the reality of God, and the desire to share this truth. He noted that this desire should be coupled with the need to understand what God has given to others, with a firm commitment, ‘I promise to listen.’