wfn.org | Speech by the Archbishop of Canterbury

[a.whitefield@quest.org.uk]

Title;
May 30, 1997
ANGLICAN COMMUNION NEWS SERVICE
Canon Jim Rosenthal, Director of Communications
Anglican Communion Office
London, England

[97.5.4.12]

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**Speech by the Archbishop of Canterbury at a Dinner in Honour of His
Grace Sheikh Muhamed Sayyid Tantawi, the Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Monday 19
May 1997

Your Grace, it is with great pleasure that I welcome you to Lambeth
Palace this evening.  Of course, this is not your first visit here.  You
came a few years ago when you were the Grand Mufti of Egypt.  I have
known you for many years as a man of great faith and wisdom and I have
enjoyed our time together.  My subsequent visit to your land in 1995
when I met with you and your illustrious predecessor, Dr Gad al Haqq Ali
gad al Haqq, gave us both fresh insights into the degree in which both
of us, as leaders in different faith communities which are in some sense
'established' in law, share similar problems and opportunities.  They
are heavy; yet I know that you are as determined as I am not to shirk
them.  We have established a positive relationship of friendship and
respect and I thank God for that.

Let us notice the differences which are part of the dialogue between the
faiths.  We come from different backgrounds, cultural and religious.  I
have grown up a Christian, you have grown up a Muslim.  The assumptions
and beliefs which are at the heart of our respective faiths we hold
dear, and neither you nor I wish to compromise those beliefs.  Yet that
does not prevent us from meeting together as equals, as friends.  It
does not prevent us from creating a relationship of trust and mutual
respect in which we can share what we have in common and talk frankly
about what separates us.

I know from my meetings with you, including our time together earlier
this evening that we are at one in deploring the violence of religious
extremists which is aimed at those of a different faith, or indeed at
those of their own faith with whom they disagree.  In this context, I
wish to acknowledge publicly and with profound gratitude your
condemnation of the attacks that have been carried out against
Christians in Egypt and elsewhere in the world by groups of Muslim
extremists.  I know they do not represent the true face of Islam.  I
know that my colleague, Bishop Ghais Abdel Malik, would echo these
words, as would the representatives of the Coptic Orthodox Church
present tonight.

The complex web of relationships which nurture and sustain the world in
which we live is a tender and sensitive one.  All too easily the strands
stretch and snap, and the resultant eruptions of physical and
psychological violence fatally would individuals, communities, even
nations.  History is often a powerful force in such situations; more
often it is ignorance and misunderstanding, which lead on to fear,
jealously, suspicion and over-zealous competition.  Such emotional
responses are poison to a human world which thrives upon trust, respect
and love.

Many societies still look to religious communities to enunciate and bear
witness to their core values.  Although we are all aware of the
apparently inexorable advance of secularism, and the fact that many
individuals reject active involvement in worshipping communities, still
there remains an expectation that leaders of religious bodies will speak
out on issues of justice, and hold firmly to ideals of human dignity and
worth.  More than that, we and our fellow witnesses must live these
values; and when we do not, we are quickly brought to task by critical
observers - the media, politicians, even those who are simply
anti-religion.

Let me say then, equally clearly, that I also condemn any aggression
against Muslims or the Islamic Faith from whatever source that might
come; and I should add that I recognise well that such attacks may come
not only through physical violence, but through speech and the written
word. Clearly this does not preclude honest debate of those aspects of
our two faiths over which we differ, sometimes passionately; but
whatever differences there may be between our faith communities, no
dialogue can be nurtured through disrespect, aggression or
misrepresentation.  I am profoundly committed to the construction of
dialogue and appropriate collaboration in which we meet as, for example,
Muslims, Christians, Hindus or Jews certainly, but primarily where we
meet as friends.  Friendship is a wonderful and challenging gift which
we must nurture carefully, for the sake of the world in which we live

Of course, Your Grace, in our conversations you have rightly raised some
of the concerns Muslim have as they seek to live as full members of
British society, and I would like to turn to this for a few moments,
remembering some of the things that I tried to say when you predecessor
gave me the enormous privilege of speaking at the Al-Azhar University in
1995.

It has long  been my opinion that, for the sake of the health of this
country in the next century and beyond, we need to find ways in which
members of our two communities can meet regularly together in a more
structured way than has been possible up to now.

The recent report on Islamophobia by the Runnymede Trust has highlighted
a number of the problems we face in tackling some of the issues and
difficulties that can so easily poison community relationships.  Yet
there is another tale to be told - and one that needs to be heard more
widely.

I think, for instance, of the way in which Muslims, Christians and
others have, in a number of cases, combined their efforts to send aid to
Bosnia. Or again I think of the work that has gone on in Bradford to
produce an agreed Religious Education Syllabus which, I was told, when I
visited there last year, has been an important factor in preventing the
withdrawal of Muslims pupils from RE Classes as has happened elsewhere
in the country. Or yet again I think of the lead taken by the Bishop of
Bradford and other Muslim and Christian leaders in seeking to rebuild
community relationships after the riots in Manningham two years ago; and
they were joined by Christians and Muslims from Manchester in protesting
at the violence committed against Christians in Pakistan.

I think also of the Inter-Faith Network in which a number of British
Muslims work together with colleagues from other faith communities,
including Christians, and I pay tribute tonight to their faithful
pioneering work over the last ten years.  And, again, there is the
Centre for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations at Selly
Oak, which has established such a strong relationship with Al-Azhar
University; and of the more recent developments academically at Oxford
with the establishment of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, and the
new department in the University of Cambridge.  I am glad to see
representatives from all these initiatives here tonight.

But there are still fears to be addressed.  I do not fear Islam.  I
understand and respect its strength and those who faithfully worship
according to the tenets of Islam and the Prophet Mohammed.  Others,
however, do retain such fears.  The international strength of Islam does
create fear among some other religious communities.  Equally, I
recognise that Muslims can often feel threatened by a culture like ours
in Britain which appears so alien, and sometimes, even for the Christian
communities, so anti-religion, and religious values.  You and I
represent what are numerically the two strongest faiths on this globe. 
For the sake of the entire human family - for its peace and prosperity
we must continue to build trust between our peoples.  To achieve this
there must be mutual respect and deeper tolerance combined with a
commitment to ensure freedom of worship and the rejection of
discrimination, especially in those countries where Muslims or
Christians find themselves to be in a minority, whilst the other faith
predominates.

It is because the issues facing us are so pressing that I am convinced
of the need to establish a fuller bilateral dialogue between the
Christians and Muslims around the country.  Over 50 years ago my
predecessor, William Temple, saw the need to develop Christian Jewish
relationships and, with others, established the Council for Christians
and Jews which, I am glad to report, still flourishes and, in its own
right, has a vital role to continue to play in the future.  Where I am
uncertain is to know how best to structure the development of
Christian-Muslim Dialogue given the nature and history of our different
communities.

And here, if I may Your Excellency, I would like to enlist your support
and that of those gathered here tonight.  Between us we represent a wide
cross-section of leadership within our communities.  I would value the
views of all my guests and your views in particular how this might best
be done.

May I also reassure these representing other faith communities that I
would not want any of them o feel excluded or threatened by such a
development. There is clearly a need in the long term to establish a
number of dialogues involving our different communities but, nationally
and internationally, I believe that Christian-Muslim relationship are of
such significance at the moment that they should take priority at
present.  Such dialogues must not avoid the points of tension and
difficulty - but one which, whilst recognising these, it must not become
submerged by them.  We must succeed in focusing on, and sharing, those
ideas where co-operation is possible in a bond of friendship and where
there are already many good stories to tell.

**The Compass Rose in bloom.

On Monday 19 May the Archbishop of Canterbury and Mrs Carey attended the
Chelsea Flower Show to launch a new rose variety to commemorate the
1400th Anniversary of the arrival of St Augustine in 1997, and herald
the 1998 Lambeth Conference.  The Cathedral was represented by the Dean
and Mrs Simpson and ten choirboys, who performed two specially prepared
'Rose' anthems at the ceremony.

The inspiration for the rose comes from the "Compass Rose" designed by
Mr Giles Blomfield is set into the floor of the Nave of Canterbury
Cathedral and was dedicated at the conclusion of the 1988 Lambeth
conference by Archbishop Robert Runcie.

The new rose will be featured at the Lambeth Conference in 1998, and
will be used as a decoration in Canterbury cathedral for the services
due to take place there.  Before that it will feature in the Exhibition
of Floral Art and Design being staged by the National Association of
Flower Arrangement Societies in Canterbury Cathedral from 2 to 5 October
1997.

The Compass Rose was raised by Kordes Rosen and will be introduced by
Mattocks Roses.  The new rose is a beautiful and highly scented shrub
rose which won the Harry Edland Memorial Medal for the Best Scented
Rose, and a Trial Ground Certificate at the Royal National Rose Society,
St Albans, 1995.

It has a spreading growth of 1.1 by 1.2 m, with clusters of perfumed
classic white semi-double blooms with red stamens.  These are showed to
perfection against glossy dark green foliage.  It will grow in mixed
borders or where space permits as a medium hedge on either side of paths
or walkways.