The Anglican Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, has accused ministers and councils of being "intolerant" of faith groups and faith schools and called for fuller gratitude for the work carried out by faith groups in the delivery of social services in England.In a discourse at Westminster Central Hall organised by the Youth for Christ organisation, Dr Sentamu said: "We must resist any trend in national or local Government where the decision as to whether a solution works is not based on results, but upon the intolerance that sees a project motivated by faith as being tainted and unsuitable for receipt of funding.”
Dr Sentamu said after a landmark independent report that many Christian groups “are working at the coalface of pastoral care and social practice motivated by nothing more than their love of God and the love for their neighbour. The belief of the unique worth of every individual, the belief in the sanctity of every life, the belief that each is loved and each is valued. These are the drivers and motivators which produce results.”
The Archbishop of York, the second most senior figure in the Church, added that there are 22,000 religious charities working in England and Wales today, there are 540 organisations who worked alongside each other in the Make Poverty History campaign and “who continue to campaign on Millennium Development Goals or even just those members of the Church of England who contribute over 23 million hours of voluntary service each year.”
The Archbishop warned of social change that faith groups are now being sidelined. "It is a chill wind that has been blowing through the corridors of the so-called 'faith schools' in recent weeks and it is an chill wind that brings no good to the naysayers, nor to those schools which are dedicated not to creedal indoctrination as their critics would have it, but rather to serving their local communities, serving children of all faiths and none in some of the most deprived areas our country as well as in some of the more well-heeled” he said.
From information into the work of faith groups in the West Midlands, Dr Sentamu said: “Far from fitting into the stereotype of proselytising organisations which seek to bang each other over the head with their holy books, the report found that people of faith were involved not to score points or claim spiritual scalps, but simply to help those in need.”
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(Source: RI)