Last Friday, Councillor Alan Rudge, Birmingham City Council’s cabinet member for Equalities and Human Resources wrote an interesting Agenda article in the Birmingham Post about engaging with local communities and building a cohesive city.

In his article he said: “Faith communities also have a valuable contribution to make in building a sense of local community and renewing civil society, although also having distinctive characteristics and potential of their own.”

He then goes on to throw out a challenge to those of us who belong to a faith tradition and particularly to leaders, saying: “I believe the new challenge for these communities, and in particular their leadership, is how in a secular multifaith society, there can emerge a theology
that transcends their boundaries to reach out to others to work for a mission which promotes cohesion between and across faiths.”

There is much to debate here both about his description of our society and his vision of mission.

For 'secular and multifaith' one might say 'plural and differentiated', following Alan Billings in his book, God and Community Cohesion, published by SPCK in 2009.

Good theology in practice will from time to time transcend boundaries by addressing themes and concepts with universal applications and significance. It will understand humans as spiritual beings with values that apply to our living together and faith as the foundation of society. Without this underpinning, a theory of cohesion is in danger of becoming little more than a series of rules, a mandate for superficial tolerance rather than appreciation and an attitude of distant respect rather than adventurous relationships.

Last Wednesday I gave a talk to the Annual Diocesan Board of Education Conference in York. The theme of the conference was 'Creating Cohesion in Schools'. In the national Guidance given to schools in 2007, two of the  major themes in 'cohesion' are  a sense of belonging and a common vision.

This second aspiration is perhaps even more important than the shared sense of belonging. It is quite possible to live alongside people of other faiths, religions, cultures and ethnicities without any sense of a shared future. (This phenomena of isolated living is fertile breeding ground for extremist parties that advocate repatriation and other forms of discrimination.)

As Christians, secure in the saving work of Jesus Christ, we keep looking around us and ahead. Confident in the love of a just and redeeming God, we have a shared vision and hope. Faithful when faced with judgment, we seek to build the Good City in the present moment.

In my talk at York, I identified three building blocks for cohesion. We need a candour about social myths, confidence in living with complexity and clarity about Christ.

Social myths obscure common sense and can even build narratives that encourage division. A Mori poll found 3 years ago that more than half of the population nationally (56%) felt that some groups get unfair priority in public services, housing, health and education. This widespread view must be countered not by generalising cohesion-speak  but decisive action and the stories of mistrust replaced by stories of generosity, justice and joyful living.

The social scientist Zygmunt Bauman talks about the difference between complication and complexity. He says we need to minismise that which is complicated and confusing and  learn to live complexity confidently, particularly in our contemporary cities. Complexity is the natural state of the world - think of the structure of an atom or the intricate structures of a plant or other living organisms. Do we really know many people we can truly describe as having a simple soul - how much less than can we expect our communal lives to be anything other than complex? God is complex, creation is complex and so is community. This requires the extra effort to appreciate and learn from difference, and so avoid the twin pitfalls of fundamentalist uniformity and mushy syncretism. 

My third building block is a clarity about Christ.  Richard Sudworth, an ordinand in the Diocese of Birmingham wrote recently about the Springfield project, which he chairs: “What is truly thrilling of a Monday morning is witnessing the gaggle of parents, belying all our stereotypes, veiled, unveiled, black, white and Asian, entrusting their children to a church-based project. Seeing these children play together across boundaries of colour, ethnicity and religion and each being valued in the name of Jesus is profoundly moving. These children will grow up appreciating and enjoying the diversity of Britain today. They will have found here, at the Springfield Project, that the Christian faith can be the difference that permits difference and will have been loved unconditionally.”

The evidence of love, given once for all and experienced daily by all who will receive it, is our common bond, our common inspiration and our common vision. “For God so love the world that he gave his only son Jesus…” John 3 v 16. God is love for the whole world and that saving love was revealed in Jesus.

I concluded my talk to the teachers by saying; “Between a young child and the wide world falls the shadow of the cross and a faithful school is connecting the ideas of heaven and the earthly reality. Press on in common sense and faith.”

We all, not only young children, need those connections making for us and we need to make them for others  - let us press on together.

+David, Bishop of Birmingham