A session at the Church of England’s General Synod on Saturday heard concerns about divisions in society and the role the Church can play in reconciliation.
Opening the discussions, the Bishop of Leicester, Martyn Snow, said the task for the Church of England was “about so much more than simply encouraging people to turn out and vote in an election”.
“It’s about weaving the fabric of society such that vulnerable groups are not scapegoated, and religion is not co-opted by unhealthy forms of nationalism, and we do not withdraw from our moral and ethical responsibilities to the wider world.”
He said the Church needed to take divisions in society seriously because they are undermining “the foundations on which our democracy is built”.
“The more divided we are, the more we see society in terms of ‘us’ and ‘them’ – with ‘us’ deserving of more freedoms or better treatment than ‘them’ – the more vulnerable we are to authoritarian politics, the likes of which is already growing in influence and indeed taking power in Europe and elsewhere in the world.
“And that should matter to us. The health of liberal democracy should matter to us because it is a political system which, however imperfect, recognises the dignity and agency of every human being, regardless of their economic outputs, their age, their mental or physical abilities. This comes back to the truth that every human being, every single one is made in the image of God and is precious to God.”
He said the Church should not be in any doubt that “our democracy is under threat today”.
“If a very large number of people believe that our country is ‘broken’ and ‘divided’, it doesn’t matter whether we agree with them or not – the very fact that so many people think it, means we should not be surprised if many start to look for increasingly radical solutions to ‘fix’ our nation,” he said.
“And if those solutions don’t immediately work, the temptation will be to look for even more radical solutions – and history gives us plenty of examples of where that can lead.”
He outlined a number of calls to the Church in response to the current situation, including a call to humility and an “honest reckoning of our history”.
While society should “publicly celebrate pride in our nation”, this should come at the same time as “opposing prejudice”.
The Church was also called, he said, to “build relationships across difference” and “form active citizens inspired by their faith”.
“We do not mean to suggest that the Church can solve all the problems our society faces, but we can play our part,” he said.
Taking inspiration from the words of the Prophet Jeremiah, he called on Christians to seek the welfare of their communities and the wider nation.
“Our heavenly citizenship doesn’t pull us out of life in our nation,” he said.
“It enables us wholeheartedly to serve our neighbours and seek their welfare.
“My welfare depends on your welfare and on the welfare of my neighbours in Leicester – whether they trace their family history to this country, or the Punjab or Uganda or Romania or Ireland.
“Our calling is to seek the welfare of all who call this great nation their home.”
The Bishop of Southampton, Rhiannon King, spoke to Synod via video link to share how the Church was part of the response when violence erupted in the city after the murder of Henry Nowak by Vickrum Digwa.
An important part of that response was listening, she explained.
“Clearly all of this has exposed afresh the fact that there are very many vulnerable and frightened people in our society, of all backgrounds, who feel unsafe or unheard or unloved or all three,” she said.
“So now the real work continues of listening to those who think differently, who feel neglected, who want change but perhaps don’t know how to go about it constructively.”
She asked Synod to pray for Southampton and “that God would use for good what others intended for evil and by God’s mercy we may be able to play a small part in the listening, the loving and the healing that is now needed here and more widely”.
The theme of listening was continued by the Bishop of Kirkstall, Arun Arora, who shared his experience of taking cupcakes to asylum seekers staying in a hotel where protests were taking place outside. When they were unable to deliver the cupcakes on security grounds, they took them instead to the protesters, even though some of them had been verbally abusing them just moments earlier.
“We listened to them, heard them, spoke with them and offered prayer,” he said.