Social Cohesion and Community during Periods of Change

Lord Bishop of Lichfield Excerpts

Friday 6th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of Lichfield]

My Lords, I am sure that on these Benches and more widely, all of us as Bishops will register and take to heart the searching and challenging words of the noble Baroness, Lady Berridge, and I thank her for them. We recognise the urgency and centrality of independent scrutiny in the life of our Church.

The UK is home to communities that are richly diverse and in which people of different cultures, beliefs and faiths live alongside one another. Social cohesion acts as the bridge between those differences. It enables us to live well together, providing resilience to communities when faced with adversity and enabling us to coexist peacefully, but as demonstrated by the riots this summer, this kind of social cohesion can no longer be taken for granted. The consequences of growing divisions should not be underestimated, and we must not ignore the increasing threat of erosion that the social cohesion binding us together faces.

In recent years we have seen the impact of global events being played out in our neighbourhoods, and those effects have often been particularly felt by faith communities. Following the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on 7 October last year, there was a major spike in anti-Semitic hate crime in the UK, and the levels of anti-Semitism recorded in 2024 remain horrifically high. Members of the Jewish community have expressed feelings of anxiety and fear, and a survey of British Jews carried out by Survation last month reveals that 77% of respondents feel less safe living in the UK since the attacks. The noble Lord, Lord Leigh, spoke powerfully and wisely about this.

There have simultaneously been increasing threats to social cohesion within many of the communities where Muslims live. During the riots in the summer, we witnessed mosques, Islamic community centres, hotels and refugee advice centres being targeted and threatened. A climate of fear was created through the spread of misinformation online regarding the perpetrators of violence being motivated by Islam. While national and international events can act as triggers for social unrest, I believe that these incidents are not isolated events but reflect insidious tensions that had been building long before the events themselves took place. It is therefore necessary that our approach to building social cohesion should be preventive and long term.

One particularly valuable tool in building cohesion that I have witnessed and participated in over the years is interfaith work. In 2013 I was serving as Bishop of Woolwich when Fusilier Lee Rigby was brutally and very publicly murdered in the street in Woolwich. Widespread rioting and unrest were predicted at that time but did not materialise. I think that at least one reason for that was the long and strong history of interfaith work in Woolwich, which had woven a texture of local community that was too tight-knit for any butcher’s knife to tear apart. Interfaith work and dialogue can dissolve barriers of mistrust, ignorance and fear and in their place build unity and cohesion, fostered through relationships founded on shared understanding and common ground.

I highlight in particular the work of the Near Neighbours organisation, which clearly takes its name from our Lord’s parable of the good Samaritan and which I think embodies the principles of philadelphia and philoxenia that the noble Lord, Lord Griffiths, reminded us of.

Near Neighbours started life by using the network of local contacts that parish churches have across the country. It works to bring people together in communities that are religiously and ethnically diverse, so that they can get to know each other better, build relationships of trust and collaborate to improve their local communities. They work through several local hubs across the country, involving local leaders and distributing small grants to local initiatives. That localism is important because it is those who are rooted in local communities who understand best the challenges and needs of their communities.

A recent report published by Theos, which was mentioned earlier by the most reverend Primate, echoes this, and affirms how local churches and faith communities bring key strengths and assets to cohesion work that are often difficult to replicate in other organisations and structures. Can the Minister say what steps those responsible for cohesion policy are taking to consult and listen to faith communities when developing a social cohesion strategy? In light of what many of us considered to be the lamented demise of the Inter Faith Network for the UK, how are the Government planning to build connections with, and support, grass-roots and local faith communities?

Education is vital. In Leicester, a city that I know well—one that, as has been mentioned, has wrestled with its own challenges of cohesion—the St Phillip’s Centre provides training for new police recruits, as well as workshops for schools to educate pupils on different faiths and the importance of respect. What steps are the Government planning to take to support educational initiatives that promote faith literacy?

Recent events have displayed the dangers of fractured communities. My hope, going forward, is that the value that faith communities provide in nurturing social cohesion will be recognised and utilised, and that, ultimately, we strengthen and build communities in which we not only coexist alongside one another but all belong to one another.

Parliamentary Democracy in the United Kingdom

Lord Bishop of Lichfield Excerpts

Tuesday 25th April 2023 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of Lichfield (Maiden Speech)]

My Lords, I am very grateful for the opportunity to speak in this House for the first time. I promise that I will be brief. I thank all noble Lords for their warm welcome and all the parliamentary staff and officers for their kindness and patience in explaining to me the procedures, traditions and geography of this extraordinary place.

Throughout my ministry I have had the joy of living and working in places of cheerful diversity—in Leicester, in south London and now in the West Midlands—and it is in the context of a diverse society that the noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Moulsecoomb, has rightly asked this Question about the strength of our parliamentary democracy.

In 2010 the late Pope, His Holiness Benedict XVI, spoke about parliamentary democracy in an address here in Westminster. He pointed out that democracy is a process rather than a value in itself—a process whose vitality depends on its being open to people who are guided by the values and commitments that inform their conscience. He asked the question,

“where is the ethical foundation for political choices to be found?”.

We might all answer that question in different ways, but we can all recognise its importance for the strength of our democracy. For many of us, the answer to the Pope’s question will be found in the faiths and beliefs we hold dear. Our parliamentary democracy has grown out of deep roots in the Christian tradition, as we are reminded at the start of every sitting in this Chamber, when we begin our business with prayer.

For our democracy to remain strong, we must recognise that many people, individuals and communities alike, are motivated by values that are given them by their faith or belief; that they need assurance that their freedom to practise and express their faith or belief is not under threat; and that differences between and within faiths in our society are not a problem or cause of anxiety. To these principles the Church of England is resolutely committed. Church of England parishes cover the whole nation of England, and our clergy and people often find themselves building strong friendships with people of different faiths in their neighbourhoods.

In my own diocese, for example, we have churches twinned with mosques in Walsall and Wolverhampton. During the pandemic, leaders of different faiths came together for online programmes to combat vaccine hesitancy. Over the last winter, people of all faiths and none have together been organising warm spaces and places of welcome. Examples like these could be multiplied across the country; faith or belief gives people values to motivate their civic involvement, and that strengthens our democracy.

As the noble Viscount, Lord Stansgate, reminded us, in 10 days our King will be crowned in a joyful service that will both be deeply Christian and deeply honour people of different faiths. In a speech soon after his accession, the King said:

“The beliefs that flourish in, and contribute to, our richly diverse society differ. They, and our society, can only thrive through a clear collective commitment to those vital principles of freedom of conscience, generosity of spirit and care for others which are, to me, the essence of our nationhood”.


Such a commitment in our diverse society can only strengthen our parliamentary democracy.