"Living with Difference" report

[Tony Williams]

See: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/the-reporters-35005026

Entitled "Living with Difference", the report has been released by the Commission on Religion and Belief in Public Life, set up by the Woolf Institute, an academic institute in Cambridge that specialises in interfaith relations.
It calls for politicians to overhaul UK public policy on religion and belief, to take account of the increasing impact of religion around the world and the more diverse nature of society in Britain, which is also less religious in many ways.
Its aim is to suggest practical ways for government and citizens to respond to social change in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, to ensure a shared understanding of the fundamental values underlying public life that guarantee religious freedom while protecting the liberties and values of non-believers.
Its recommendations include:
Opening up representation in the House of Lords to other faiths
Creating a grassroots "Magna Carta" style statement of values for public life, rather than a government-led approach to defining "British values"
Refocusing anti-terror legislation to promote rather than limit freedom of speech and expression
The commission was chaired by the cross-bencher Baroness Butler-Sloss, and has taken two years to prepare its report. Twenty religious and academic thinkers from every major religious tradition, as well as the British Humanist Association, received more than 200 submissions of evidence.
Baroness Butler-Sloss says that the recommendations amount to a "new settlement for religion and belief in the UK" and are aimed at providing space and a role in society for all citizens, "regardless of their beliefs or absence of them".

The report suggests that the government should repeal the need for schools to hold acts of collective worship or religious observance, and hold "inclusive assemblies and times for reflection that draw upon a range of sources… and that will contribute to their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development".
It notes that almost half the population now describes itself as non-religious. In 1983, two-thirds of those in the UK would have identified as Christian, whereas today it is down to two-fifths. Half a century ago, Judaism was the second-largest faith tradition, while it is now fourth behind Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism.
The recommendations of the 144-page report are a plea for greater understanding, tolerance and knowledge of each other in a society in which religion is no longer a glue that binds, but all too often a source of division, mistrust and sometimes hatred.

[Abdul Alhazred]

Will there still be an "established" church?

[bindeweede]

The National Secular Society has responded.

Commenting on the report, Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, said:
"There are some sensible recommendations in the Commission's report, but on the whole it clearly reflects the overbearing influence of vested interests and their reluctance to make recommendations for any fundamental change, however necessary. Disestablishing the Church of England should be a minimum ambition for a modern Britain in the 21st century."

I don't see that happening for decades.

http://www.secularism.org.uk/news/2015/ ... y-says-nss

[Brian1945]

Removing the need for "collective worship" in schools would be a very good start. The increasing irrelevance of the CoE to the general public is plain to see. Will this not inevitably lead to eventual disestablishment - beginning perhaps with the removal of the bishops from the House of Lords?

[polomint38]

Removing the need for "collective worship" in schools would be a very good start. The increasing irrelevance of the CoE to the general public is plain to see. Will this not inevitably lead to eventual disestablishment - beginning perhaps with the removal of the bishops from the House of Lords?

but the bishops are the only members of the lords who can move diagonally.

[chaggle]

Removing the need for "collective worship" in schools would be a very good start. The increasing irrelevance of the CoE to the general public is plain to see. Will this not inevitably lead to eventual disestablishment - beginning perhaps with the removal of the bishops from the House of Lords?

but the bishops are the only members of the lords who can move diagonally.

boom tish

[Abdul Alhazred]

Thinking about the concept of "collective worship" in schools.

Though it's not linked to any particular religion, would you all consider "morning exercises" such as flag saluting and singing patriotic songs to be "collective worship"?

It's not fashionable now, but it was all the rage in the USA when I was a little kid.