Canon Dr Andrew Smith is the Director of Inter Faith Relations for the Bishop of Birmingham and Secretary to the Anglican Communion Inter Faith Commission. He will be a contributor on this September’s webinars about ‘The Lambeth Call on Inter Faith’. He spoke to the Anglican Communion Office about the importance of inter faith relations.
What do inter faith relationships look like where you are?
‘Birmingham is a wonderful place … we have almost every religion in the city in all their diversity. Whether it’s working with Sunni or Shia Muslims, different Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, or Jews, it’s really diverse … There are lots of good friendships being formed, missions taking place, dialogues happening, although there’s always more to do.’
What do you see as the main challenges to successful inter faith relations?
‘The main challenges at the moment are global issues such as the conflict in Israel and Gaza, Myanmar, Sudan, or tensions in the Indian subcontinent.
‘Those tensions affect communities here… Then, when you add to that social media, fake news, the distrust of media, sharing content instantly without any checking as to whether it’s real and people in echo chambers believing only the bit that they want to hear, it makes it a really challenging time to be doing inter faith relations. I’m sure this will be true around the world.
‘Rising migration around the globe is seeing a growth in anti-immigration sentiment in some segments of our societies. This can complicate inter faith relations, yet highlights the crucial need for meaningful dialogue between religious groups to foster mutual understanding.’
How do you think inter faith work can make a tangible difference in the world?
‘I believe there is real strength when we work together. I think when we can show the world that when religions come together, it needn’t be conflict, there can be a positive outcome and that when we work together, the world is a better place for everybody.
‘That is incredibly powerful, and it makes political leaders and others sit up and take notice when people of different faiths make the world better for all citizens. That doesn’t mean we diminish who we are. We’re still clear and rooted within our faith, but we are able to come together to tackle homelessness or child poverty, issues around the environment and other issues. When we can be confident in who we are and yet work together, that is hugely powerful.
‘In unity, there are also more resources and we can draw on the expertise of others. Together, there are just more people around to do things, and lots of people with wisdom and knowledge and that witnesses that our faith is about making the world better for everybody.’
What inspires you about the Lambeth Call to inter faith relations?
‘The Lambeth Call to Inter faith (2.4) states that “Whatever our background, our neighbours of other religious traditions are all made in the image of God, and as Christians we are called to love others as ourselves”, and that is the key thing, the great command to love the Lord, your God with all your heart and all your mind and all your strength and to love your neighbour as yourself.
‘For me, the challenge is, how are we faithfully loving God and growing as disciples, while loving our neighbours unconditionally at the same time? It is much easier to do one or the other to say “I love God properly and you don’t, therefore I’m going to ignore you, get rid of you or disparage you” or “I’m going to love my neighbour, but let’s ignore and play down our differences”. Both of those are easier than embracing the great commandment to love our neighbour unconditionally and, at the same time, be faithful to loving God. If we can work that out, then a lot of other stuff falls into place.
‘In a global context, we also need to make sure we are engaged with all different faiths….The joy of being in Birmingham is that I get to spend just as much time in Hindu temples and the Sikh gurdwaras as mosques or synagogues, understanding and engaging seriously with those faiths that on the surface have much less in common. When you scratch underneath, I find so much in common and so much that we can engage with. Developing a theology of inter faith relations needs to encompass the breadth of faiths.
‘I think it’s really important that we have a global perspective that we can engage seriously with those and one of the key aspects in the Lambeth Call is how do we support churches who are facing serious persecution and real restriction, which is an awful lot of our brothers and sisters. That is a challenge for those of us in countries where we have freedom, to be proactive in speaking up for and supporting those churches. I think for us as a global communion, how we stand together and support one another in whatever way we can is really important.’
About Canon Andrew Smith
Andrew Smith is the Director of Interfaith Relations for the Bishop of Birmingham, a post he has held since 2011. He has been involved in interfaith work, primarily in Birmingham, since the mid-1990s and his doctoral thesis was on young people and Christian-Muslim relations. He is a long-standing member of the Church of England national Presence and Engagement task group supporting churches in multi-faith parishes. He founded the youth charity ‘The Feast’ in 2009, which brings together teenagers of different faiths for friendship and understanding.
He is the external tutor at Queens Theological Foundation, leading their inter faith module. He has written several articles and books on interfaith work and is a regular speaker and trainer on this topic, which has taken him to many countries. In 2016, he was awarded the Hubert Walter Award for Inter Faith Relations by the Archbishop of Canterbury and is also an honorary Lay Canon at Birmingham Cathedral. In 2024, he took up the role of Secretary to the Inter Faith Commission for the Anglican Communion.
About the webinar
To find out more about the webinar, visit the Lambeth Conference website.