THE Archbishop of Canterbury has emphasised the importance of disagreeing well and looking for peace, on the launch of a course on reconciliation to be utilized in church youth groups.
The Difference course is already getting used in secondary schools (News, 2 February), having previously been rolled out in prisons (News, 13 May 2022). The course has now been redeveloped to be used by church youth groups.
At a launch event within the gardens of Lambeth Palace on Wednesday, Archbishop Welby reflected on his childhood experiences of living with conflict in his family: “The thing that almost all kids want, in my experience, greater than anything, is security, stability, and safety at home.”
While it was disturbing to be exposed to conflict, it was also inevitable, he said, because “we’re all barely different”.
Becoming siloed in “like-minded groups” that excluded others was the “opposite of what God makes us for”, he said. “God makes us to be in community, and God makes us incredibly diverse.”
In an interview with ITV’s Good Morning Britain before the event, Archbishop Welby said: “We’ve forgotten the best way to forgive, the best way to flow.”
There was a Christian imperative to live with difference, he said. “Jesus Christ doesn’t say ‘Be all like each other.’ He talks in regards to the way we’re all known by God, loved by God, and says: ‘Serve each other and love each other, even in the event you’re very different.’ He says ‘Love your enemies.’”
This was greater than just being tolerant, he said. “I believe we must be those that recognise difference, forgive when people have, in all good conscience, made a mistake . . . and who learn to just accept that we’re all different and might learn from one another.”
Asked in regards to the conflict within the Middle East, he said that there “have to be a ceasefire, but it surely must include not only the discharge of hostages but accounting for the hostages who’ve died; it must then include talks that may, over time, begin the generational task of constructing trust.”
