Lambeth Report Canterbury: Monday, July 28th

From www.forwardinfaith.com

FiF International News
Lambeth Conference - 10
Jul 29, 2008

"A Daily Business"

The Lambeth bishops' topic today was "Engaging with a Multi-Faith World - The Bishop, Christian Witness and Other Faiths".

Bishop Tom Butler of Southwark in England observed that "no subject will have changed so dramatically" since the last Lambeth Conference. Interfaith relations are no longer "interesting and theoretical", but a matter of dealing with the society in which we live.

The bishop noted that his diocese, which covers the southern half of greater London, is multi-faith and multi-cultural. The majority of those of other faiths, he observed, are good and devout, "wonderful citizens", and proved to be "allies in trying to build community" in the wake of 9/11 and the Iraq war.

A study entitled "Generous Love: An Anglican Theology of Interfaith Relations" has been sent to all the Communion's bishops, Bp. Butler reported. It sets out an Anglican approach, based on experience around the globe: "being there, being a presence in whatever community", both to witness and to work together for the common good, for instance by providing education and health care.

Bp. Butler pointed to the bishops' London day, in which the Archbishop of Canterbury had been joined on the dias by the leaders of all major faiths and denominations in England, as illustrating how an interfaith witness has "much greater authority" than that of a single group.

Another paper, entitled "The Common Word", was a response from the Archbishop to the letter from 135 Muslim scholars, and grew out of a conference he had convened. In that paper he stated that Christianity and Islam have many things in common, but also that many things divided them. He urged the need for discussion without any loss of integrity, so that both parties would have a clear understanding.

Asked about Bp. Nazir-Ali's assertion that there are "no-go" areas in Britain, Bp. Butler responded that he has not experienced anything like that in the dioceses in which he has served.

Commenting on the degree to which political exigencies shape interfaith relationships, as for instance with respect to freedom of worship in Saudi Arabia, Bp. Butler said that the situation there was extremely difficult, but not typical. He described areas where Muslims and Christians are cooperating, for instance in joint efforts to address HIV, as "far more typical"

The bishop was asked if he fears the repercussions of decisions by the Communion - or the Communion tempering its decisions in reaction to extremism. He responded that he did not see that as a major problem, citing the British experience in Northern Ireland. The way forward, he said, is to build up the influence of mainline, mainstream faith leaders.

United Church of Pakistan

The Moderator of the United Church of Pakistan, Bp. Alexander Malik of Lahore, began his presentation to the press conference by urging that interfaith dialogue should extend to all faiths, and indeed that there should be dialogue with the secularist West as well. But his remarks today, he said, would focus on relations with Islam.


Bp. Malik offered four primary observations. First, he said, 9/11 created both difficulties and opportunities for dialogue. Second, "all Muslims are not terrorists, nor are all Christians Westerners". Third, he observed that the interfaith dynamic changes depending on whether Muslims were in the minority or the majority. Fourth and finally, he maintained, dialogue is difficult but not impossible in the context of religious extremism.

People look at interfaith dialogue in many different ways, the bishop observed: some see it as a betrayal, others as a debate, yet others as a compromise. But after twenty-eight years as a bishop, he saw it as "an excellent way" to express the love of God in Christ.

Interfaith dialogue, Bp. Malik continued, is an excellent way to build relationships and connect with each other. And in his context, it is "a daily business", as people of different faiths encounter one another and interact in everyday life.

Interfaith dialogue, the bishop said, has helped Christians in Pakistan help other people by providing education, health care, and poverty alleviation without respect to creed, caste or colour. He noted that most Pakistani leaders had studied in schools and colleges founded and run by the church.

Sometimes Western policies generate misconceptions and cause clashes, Bp. Malik observed, citing the publication of the Danish cartoons, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But dialogue has helped build relationships, with some success.

Asked what advice he would give the Muslim minority in Great Britain, Bp. Malik noted that when in a majority, Muslims were not so much interested in dialogue. He therefore urged them to go ahead with dialogue, and to assimilate into those values of the larger society which they think it right to embrace.

Responding to a question about the blasphemy laws and kidnappings and forced conversions, the bishop noted that the church in Pakistan is actively protesting that nation's blasphemy laws, which he described as "like a hanging sword on the minorities", and encouraged the church elsewhere to join in its protests.

Bp. Malik, responding to another question, said that he had referred questions from the press about Pope Benedict XIV's lecture in Regensburg to the (Roman) Catholic authorities. At the same time, he has defended the Pope's position in private conversations.

Responding to further questions, Bp. Malik observed that Muslims feel the same with respect to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and with respect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: "They feel the western countries are unfair". He further noted that, in supporting the mujahadeen after the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, the "West had a part in producing that extremism and terrorism".

Melanesian Brotherhood

The conference ended with a very different and deeply moving presentation by Fr. Richard Carter, an English priest who for 17 years has served with the Melanesian Brotherhood.

Meleitans had settled on the island of Guadalcanal after World War II. For years they prayed together, played together, and intermarried with that island's population. But their success, and in particular their ownership of land, Fr. Carter said, gave rise to a bitterness which surfaced in 1999, when an insurgency demanded their repatriation and the independence of Guadalcanal.


Gradually the conflict spread, Fr. Carter continued: young Meleitan children were told to go home, villages were burnt down, and incomers were tortured and murdered. Some 20,000 people were left homeless. The church was seen as a place of sanctuary: thousands of these displaced persons came to the Brotherhood seeking protection. The Brothers offered them temporary shelter and sought to arrange their transfer to the capital, while banning anyone with guns and ammunition.

Twenty-five Brothers went to work in the no-man's land between the warring parties, where they ferried back the wounded and the dead, and spoke out against the culture of violence. In the end, people looked more to them than to the authorities for help.

A peace agreement was signed in 2000 in Townsville. But young militants were still present and armed, and fighting continued. While the community was uneasy about what might be considered political involvement, it resolved in 2002 by broadcasting on the radio their willingness to visit those willing to surrender their weapons for destruction, and pray with them, and ask for their forgiveness - all confidentially.

The Brothers were bombarded by calls. People came to them because they were traumatised: they had blood on their hands, and wanted to start again. The Brothers' Reconciliation House was filled with guns, rifles and hand grenades, which were eventually taken to sea and sunk before witnesses. Even though some accused them of collusion with the government, the Brothers continued their ministry of reconciliation.

One group refused to surrender its weapons. Several brothers visited them. When one was taken hostage, six others went out to search for him. They were also taken hostage, and accused of being spies.

Just after the Bali bombings, Australia and other nations in the region finally sent in an "army of intervention". That force, which never fired a bullet, found the tortured, murdered bodies of these seven Brothers..

Fr. Carter said that going to speak with their families was "the worst moment of my life". The martyred Brothers had made the choice every Christian must make, he observed, the choice to stand up for peace and live the Gospel they proclaimed. Their funeral in November stopped the whole nation, calling it to its senses. The Brothers were "standing up for the truth we believe in" against the "culture of revenge, of payback".

Asked why he did not give up and return to England, Fr. Carter said he could not, because there was no alternative: "if I got out", he asked, "what about the other people?" The Brothers were many people's only source of hope.

The seven martyred Brothers will be enrolled in the Chapel of the Twentieth-Century Martyrs at Canterbury Cathedral at the Conference's closing Eucharist this Sunday evening.