faqs
An Interview with Fr Fergus Capie
How would you describe the work of LIFC?
We are a place of meeting, study and dialogue, among the religions and with the secular world
You have been open almost ten years. How much has the work changed?
It has changed enormously. When we began one still had to defend the corner of this now ubiquitous expression of `inter faith`. Now – in this country – (following 911 and 7/7) it is virtually de rigeur, and inter faith advice on occasion, far from promoting a generalised notion of inter faith, needs to challenge some of the assumptions that have grown up around this idea
You say `in this country`. What about elsewhere?
We are comparatively new to a religiously plural landscape here – which may in part account for how ideologically proactive we have been in approaching the issues. In other places, where people have lived in religious plurality for centuries or even millennia, they may live in a sort of de facto or deliberate denial (as in parts of the Middle East) or may cooperate over social justice issues while not necessarily dreaming of investigating one another`s world views or truth claims (as in parts of east Asia).
“Ideologically proactive” ? What do you mean?
The majority religion here has gone to great lengths in term of theological reflection, to give itself permission for pursued contact with `the other`, not simply at the level of proselytizing. Now a general climate has developed – and whereas this country was becoming ever more secular – now `inter faith` is an acknowledged way of working in the community and for society as a whole.
Sounds encouraging.
Oh yes – and as I always say, the ever more confident profile and presence of other faiths in the UK has given us Christians back the permission to be religious. Of course it is a different type of permission than before – it is now as one of many religions. Also, curiously, it sort of `outs` us Christians to be more explicit about faith – which isn`t necessarily very British!
In what ways is all this getting through to the next generation?
Each local authority here has a Standing Advisory Committee for Religious Education, the membership of which reflects local demography. So there is effectively a statutory inter faith agency in every borough working for the rising generation to understand one another better.
Multiculturalism in action?
Well to a degree, yes – whatever people understand by that widely used term – which, along with others, begs revisiting and refreshed and refined definition.
How do you see the role of LIFC in all this?
On the one hand inter faith work is no longer frontier stuff in quite the way it was here ten years ago – however our brief now, as then, is to resource those in the majority religion….
Sorry to interrupt. You have used this phrase before. The majority religion?
In the 2001 census 72% of the population chose to describe themselves as Christian – and a significant part of our work is, arising out of ever deeper and fuller relationships with other faiths and their groups and communities, to resource Christians (both cultural and confessional) in what it may mean to belong to a traditionally exclusivist and missionary religion in a now many and non faith world.
You say – ever deeper and fuller relationships with other faiths?
Yes – and I would find it difficult now to imagine just working with Christians or secularists. We of the different faiths have such a vast amount to share with and give to and learn from one another – while acknowledging our often profound differences and avoiding simply going down the road of doing a `cut-and-paste` job on our own tradition to avoid giving offence to another. Not that one would ever gratuitously give offence!
How do you mean `secularists`?
Thank you for that. Secularism like multiculturalism needs revisiting as a concept. There are many forms of secularism. For example we are not secular here in the way that France is. Here – with the Head of State as Governor of the Church by Law Established, our secularism could be described as one of spirit rather than of structure. This sort of post Enlightenment secularism – at best pursuing space and respect for those of all faiths and none, needs to be distinguished from another type (which has a profiled minority here) – that is actively anti-religious. But in terms of the stories that we tell ourselves and live by, we need to acknowledge the reality of that type of secularism around us and find creative ways of working within such a context.
So `secularism` gets attention too, at LIFC?!
Yes – and perhaps we should be called `inter-ideological` rather than `inter faith` as our interest is in the issues around the coexistence of people for whom particular ideas and values and stories both resource and threaten their continued living together.
And what about specific mixed faith work?
At the outset – ten years ago for us here – an initiative had to be a bit of a `Jack-of-all-trades` in inter faith. Now – with such a proliferation of initiatives (there were recently 2400 applicants for £7m of government money on related local work) there is a challenge for any one initiative to focus and concentrate on particular areas of activity. Alongside being home here to World Conference of Religions for Peace UK Chapter, World Congress of Faiths, Week of Prayer for World Peace and so on – we run courses and events and day conferences, with those of other faiths, on a broad spectrum of related issues.
