In Partnership with University of Worcester, University of Chester, The University of Warwick, William Temple Foundation, Culham St Gabriel’s, Saint Peter’s Saltley Trust and Centre for Faiths and Public Policy
This consultation aimed to curate a strategic and deep conversation about nation building and the role of institutional faiths and belief (both religious and non-religious) in that task.
This consultation took place in the context of a deep sense of fragmentation that was highlighted by the Brexit vote, but which has deeper and longer roots.
It took place approximately a year after the Referendum vote on June 23
rd 2016, and engaged with 12 months of national and international reflection following this momentous event. Fragmentation is between and within localities as well as regions and nations within the UK as well as running along demographic fault lines such as class and age. A salient parallel to the original Malvern consultation in 1941 is that the stability and security of Europe feels directly under threat – not so much from a global war as from a series of destabilising globalising trends, including terrorism, economic uncertainty and nationalism. The time is ripe to develop a deep and critical sense of multiculturalism about what it means to be British and European in the 21
st century. This, we suggest, starts with a shared imaginary of what this means, rooted in religious and philosophical traditions, out of which might emerge a sense of shared narrative of what the United Kingdom is, and the ethics upon which that narrative is based.
Key questions and areas we wanted to explore at this event included:
- What sort of our nation are we?
- What sort of nation could we be?
- What values and beliefs sustain your vision?
The full consultation report can be read here.