The Archbishop praises religious pluralism in India - The Church Times, UK

Dr Williams praises religious pluralism in India - The Church Times, UK



Fêted: the Archbishop of Canterbury visits the Delhi Brotherhood Society, and meets children for a game of cricket LAMBETH PALACE

THE Archbishop of Canterbury, during the second week of his visit to India, praised the country’s approach to reli*gious pluralism.

On Saturday, he laid a wreath and prayed at a memorial to Mahatma Gandhi, before visiting the Delhi Brotherhood Society, which was formed out of the Cambridge Brother*hood, a group of priests who moved to Delhi in 1887 to promote higher education. He presided over the eu*charist at its chapel, before playing cricket with street children.

On Sunday morning, Dr Williams was processed through the streets on a horse-drawn carriage to Vyasarpadi Parish Church, in the deprived area of Chennai, in the diocese of Madras. He said it was “an unforgettable wel*come. . . Things do not happen quite like this in England.”

Last Friday, Dr Williams delivered the Chevening Lecture in New Delhi, at the invitation of the UK’s High Commissioner to India, Sir Richard Stagg. Speaking on the relationship between Church and state, Dr Williams commended India’s accom*modation of “multiple religious iden*tities” in a world caught between “re*newed bids for theocracy and anxious efforts to secure the complete pri*vatisation of faith”.

He advocated a “pluralist state” that “takes religious belonging seriously, and sees itself . . . as serving the healthy co-existence and inter*action of diverse communities of con*viction and loyalty, by creating for all of them a ‘civic space’, where all can find a voice”.

Dr Williams warned, however, that it would be “a serious and damaging mistake” to think that “other iden*tities”, such as religious ones, were re*placed by “secular civic identity”. The challenge for a pluralist society was to defend “universal civil liberties and universal access to legal process and legal protection, while seeking to work with the grain of existing loyal*ties and solidarities to secure a better settlement for all”, he said.

He spoke of how, since indepen*dence, India had “consistently tried to define a ‘secularism’ that is not hostile to multiple religious identities”. It has had to “struggle repeatedly with pres*sures and temptations in the direc*tion of communalism, to avoid the state becoming only a harassed referee between sometimes violently com*pet*ing identities and claims”.

Dr Williams concluded that “our best political future lies with what I have elsewhere called ‘argumentative democracy’. . . religious integrity is well served, and not undermined by such a vision for our society.”

At an ecumenical meeting with the National Council of Churches in India, in Nagpur, also on Thursday of last week, the Archbishop argued that violence and terrorism could be countered by “good religion”, the Hindustan Times reported. It also said that Dr Williams “warned all those engaged in the ministries of youth not to compete with the entertain*ment industry and . . . emphasised that faith communities should focus on the holistic formation of young people”.

In an interview with the newspaper The Hindu, published on Wednesday, Dr Williams said: “While the in*stitutions of the Communion struggle, in many ways the mutual life of the Communion — the life of exchange and co-operation between different parts of our Anglican family — is quite strong, and perhaps getting stronger.”

Asked where the Communion was heading given ongoing infighting over women bishops and gay priests, Dr Williams said: "I think I’ll be able to be clearer about that after the next primates’ meeting. But at the moment I couldn’t say I felt completely optimistic about that. I feel that we may yet have to face the possibility of deeper divisions. I don’t at all like, or want to encourage, the idea of a multi-tier organisation. But that would, in my mind, be preferable to complete chaos and fragmentation. It’s about agreeing what we could do together."

The Archbishop returns from India on Sunday.

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=102761

 

Yay Vatican and Archbishop

 

YAY

It's ANGLICAN CHURCH not the Catholic Vatican. Church of England separated from the vatican way back during the reign of Elizabeth I.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabethan_Religious_Settlement

 

I am a Catholic I know the difference between the Church of England and the Vatican.........................
I added Vatican in that post as they have also tagged on a similar line................

 

Good for you and the Vatican.