Transcript Document

St Albans Diocesan Synod 14th March 2015
Engaging with Civil Society beyond the General
Election
Prof Chris Baker, Director of Research
William Temple Foundation
William Temple Professor of Religion and Public Life, University of Chester
4 dynamics shaping the relationship between religion and the public sphere
1) Religion has struck a chord – but is this simply a pre-election blip?
2) A Postsecular public sphere? – The new visibility of Religion in the 21st century
3) The rise of spiritual capital – the search for deeper values in public life and the
impetus to act upon them (since 2008?)
4) Progressive Localism? – what does this looks like at the local level? – Three Case
Studies
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A change in the Political Weather?
The Bishops’ Pastoral letter
‘[expresses the] longing for a more humane society that reflects St Paul’s injunction –
a better politics for a better nation. Amen you might say to that’ Will Hutton
They’re calling on us to make a leap of faith – not to a belief in eternal life, but to the
liberal conviction that society is better, that collectively and individually we’ll be
happier, if we look for and expect the best in each other, if our first instinct is
compassion, not anger David Mitchell
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Are we now living in a postsecular public sphere – the new
visibility of religion in the 21st century?
Empirical reality – post-Soviet Europe; 84% of the world’s citizens identify with a
religious identity
Moral reality – need to reconnect with religious sources of wisdom in response to the
threat to democracy from neo-liberal globalised capitalism
We need to adopt ‘a postsecular self-understanding of society as whole in which the
vigorous continuation of religion in a continually secularizing environment must be
reckoned with’(Habermas 2006)
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Spiritual capital – the search for norms and deeper values.
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Vital element in the creation of social capital - the importance of relationships,
networks and norms that can be used to enrich individuals and communities
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The resilience and effectiveness of faith-based contribution to social capital is the
dynamic interplay the what and why
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Religious capital is, ‘the practical contribution to local and national life made by
faith groups’ (i.e. the what)
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Spiritual capital meanwhile, ‘energises religious capital by providing a theological
identity and worshipping tradition, but also a value system, moral vision and a
basis of faith’(the why)
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Leveraging the ethical and political power of spiritual capital?
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Spiritual capital not the sole preserve of citizens attending religious institutions,
but is, in terms of its properties as a value system and moral vision, a motivating
force for those outside formal religious affiliation. In other words there is such a
thing as secular spiritual capital.
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The emergence of the postsecular debate highlights the importance of leveraging
the ethical and political power of everyone’s spiritual capital. In a postsecular
public space we must create the freedom to experiment with multiple discourses,
multiple visions of the truth and multiple expressions of identity. Post 2008?
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Progressive Localism – new microspaces of postsecular politics and
citizenship?
Progressive localism is an attitude of mind and political approach that is:
‘outward looking and creates positive affinities between places and social groups
negotiating global processes. These affinity groups and networks are expansive in
their geographical reach and productive of new relations between places and social
groups. They can reconfigure existing communities around emergent agendas for
social justice, participation and tolerance.
(Featherstone et al. “Progressive localism and the construction of political alternatives” Transactions of the
Institute of British Geographers 37: 177-18
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Three case studies of faith-based/faithinspired progressive localism
• Hodge Hill - some politicising moments
• From ‘centre of community’ to ‘treasure seeker’ (joining
conversations and hearing into speech)
• From service provider to threshold maker (creating alternative spaces
– Open Door and the 5 Ps
• Engaging wider conversations - Naming our ‘addiction’ to the ‘service industry’
• What can we do with ‘neighbourhood power’?
• What do we need some external support with?
• What do we need external agencies to do?
Hodge Hill – Key Indicators of Impact
• (‘postcapitalist politics’ – JK Gibson-Graham – i.e. it’s already
happening all over the place, if we look for it)
• Localising food & energy (cf Transition Towns)
• Non-money economies & local ‘commons’
• Radical hospitality (who do we welcome / value / listen to?)
• Local ‘public squares’ (OUEs different to city centre! Places for
digging into the issues, exploring, contesting, imagining)
• Sustainable ‘church’ (when the big building, the vicar, and the
institution have disappeared) (e.g. Community Houses in HH)
Sufra Food Bank and Community Kitchen
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Mohamed Mumdani
Sufra – a polyphonic word – tablecloth, dining room, space of hospitality
Food bank in Brent – 46 tons of food 3000 referrals – 90% non-Muslim
First customer was Stephen – no idea what to do with the food he was
given
Community Kitchen – 10 session course
Apprenticeship schemes (25 employed in catering trade)
Vocational advice
Election hustings 2015
Sufra - Key Indicators of Impact
• Not the end of the road but the start of a new journey for
those who access the foodbank.
• Sufra aspires to be an organisation where people of different
faiths and no-faith could ‘take part in social action together,
fundraise together, and share resources together’ to create
what he calls a ‘sustainable common purpose’.
Bristol Pound (Genesis of)
• Revd Chris Sunderland
• Greatest challenges and opportunities revolve around our
relationship with creation
• Earth Abbey – former vicarage garden – Growzone – community food
growing project
• Chooseday – City wide campaign for leaving cars at home
• People ‘with a spiritual heart’ but ‘suspicious of formalised
Christianity’
• Idea for a Local currency emerged
Bristol Pound (impacts)
• A local currency to give people a taste of a different form of money,
that was embedded in the local economy and could produce a new
values-led community of exchange.
• ‘We need to do a currency that is city-wide and uses both electronic
and printed media’. That was our root commitment that stayed with
us through the next three years preparation for launch. Gradually a
team grew around this core idea. Others had been thinking along
similar lines. They were not necessarily people of faith.
• In post-Christendom society, it is very hard for any project that is
actively identified with a faith organisation to become more than a
niche concern.
Bristol Pound – Impacts
• 700 businesses and 1300 individuals that are part of the scheme
• The electronic system is the heart of our exchange. In the four weeks
over Christmas our total exchange 30,000 BPs across the city
• An energy supplier, working to achieve major public procurement
contracts in Bristol Pounds
• Developing a new business to business credit facility
• A new Co-operative, called Real Economy: brings people in touch with
local producers, encourage uptake of fresh food, with minimal waste,
through using buying groups that order their food using a bespoke
webtool
Summary of Faith-based contributions to a
sustainable Politics of Hope
• Hearing stories’ of ordinary (and often stigmatised) people into
speech,
• ‘nurturing informal affinities’ of partnership by providing the
necessary skilled and empathic leadership;
• ‘putting out ideas’ that represent new and alternative visions of
community and relationships that everyone can gather round.
• Faith communities as pivotal hubs and curators of new expressions of
postsecular citizenship and a deeper form of politics based on a
renewed sense of hope and resilience rather than the antipolitics of
despair.
What does progressive localism (i.e. outward-focussed praxis)
look like on the ground?
New spaces, new affinities and new practices = new type of leadership?
Political credibility emerges from authenticity and direct engagement with
issues. (Are we bold enough to own this credibility?)
Can spiritual revival lead to both religious and political revival?
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For more information visit; http://www.stalbans.
anglican.org/faith/involved-politics/
Group Discussions
At 10.50 please be in the following deanery groups for 20
minute discussion on the questions listed on the handout.
1. Berkhamsted – Wheathampstead
2. Hemel – Watford
3. Barnet – Rickmansworth
4. St Albans – Welwyn Hatfield
5. Hertford Ware – Cheshunt
6. Bishops Stortford – Buntingford
7. Stevenage – Hitchin
8. Luton – Dunstable
9. Amptihill/Shefford – Biggleswade
10. Bedford – Sharnbrook
Meeting Room
Foyer
Coffee Area
Coffee Area
Coffee Area
Coffee Area
Main Hall
Main Hall
Main Hall
Main Hall
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