A NEW commission on interfaith relations was launched last week, with a remit to discover and defuse potential areas of conflicts.
The Area Bishop of Willesden, in London diocese, the Rt Revd Lusa Nsenga-Ngoy, is the vice-chair of the Commission on Interfaith Relations, convened by the Woolf Institute in Cambridge, and launched on Tuesday.
Bishop Nsenga-Ngoy said that the commission mattered “because we reside through a moment when global events are being felt deeply in local communities, often in ways in which strain relationships and fuel misunderstanding.
“I’m convinced that careful research, serious listening, and sustained interfaith engagement will not be optional extras; they’re essential if we’re to nurture social cohesion and a shared sense of belonging within the UK.”
The chair of the commission, Dr Ed Kessler, who founded the Woolf Institute, said that riots in Leicester in 2022 and across the country in 2024 “indicate that faith-tied tensions are intensifying, not easing, and it’s important we understand how current and emerging conflicts overseas change into points of tension inside the UK.
“We is not going to address every global conflict but will examine essentially the most relevant global conflicts and their direct impact on UK faith relations.”
The UK’s most distinguished interfaith charity, the Inter Faith Network (IFN), closed in 2024 after government funding was withdrawn.
The latest Commission on Interfaith Relations will meet six times this 12 months to debate evidence from public-participation sessions across the UK. Alongside the chair and vice-chair, an additional 12 commissioners have been confirmed, including a former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the Rt Revd Sally Foster-Fulton, who’s an Ambassador for Christian Aid, and the chief executive of the Runnymede Trust, Dr Shabna Begum.
