Nostra Aetate - In Our Time

31 n the spirit of Nostra Aetate may I greet you equally, sisters and brothers – an Anglican response to Nostra Aetate . All of us engaged in interreligious life and discourse live in the slipstream of the ground-breaking seminal declaration, Nostra Aetate , setting a framework for engagement and relationship borne by our common humanity. It reminds the Church of its primary voca- tion to worship the one God, and to witness and attest to this before the world and every single person, all of whom are, we believe, children of God created uniquely in God’s own image. The recognition that there is nobility of desire, truth and holiness in both Hinduism and Buddhism, offers us a template for engagement. If we can recognise the fidelity and integrity of those seeking God from within their own faith traditions, we can move with integrity towards a theology of dialogue and understanding. As Anglicans, this is manifest in a commitment to bilateral and multilateral relationships which have borne rich fruit of academic discussion of the extent of common theological ground through scriptural reasoning. This commitment has also been evident in the recent Anglican Church and UK Government initiative called “Near Neighbours”, whereby a small grants fund has been made available to act as the catalyst for grass roots projects of social transformation through some of the most deprived and divided communities in England. The granting of funds for these projects is dependent on them being initiated by groups of people from different faith backgrounds with the purpose of engaging people of those various backgrounds. This initiative has been academically scrutinised and has contributed significantly to the integration of fragile communities after the trauma of the widespread rioting of 2001 and the bombings of 2005 in London which led to exhaustive inquiries into the dangers of an unin- tegrated society. There is also something understated but unapologetic in the call for both Christians and Muslims to draw a line under the past, and to focus our energies on the work of mutual understanding, social justice, moral welfare, peace and freedom. This call for radical dis- continuity in the competitive history of Christianity and Islam steers us towards a more hopeful path where our differences can be faced honestly and non-defensively. The Christian Muslim Forum initiated by the Archbishop of Canterbury in the United Kingdom, has made considerable headway in facilitating conversations between people of the two faiths, which do not deny the very real theological differences between us, but do acknowledge our mutual right to not only coexist but to thrive and flourish in a democratic and secular society. The heart of the declaration is in the clarion call for a clear, biblically based recognition of the shared scrip- tural history of Judaism and Christianity and the grave scriptural error of Christians in supersessionism and replacement theology. The declaration also recognises Christian complicity in contributing towards anti-Semitism. In the United King- dom, the Council of Christians and Jews has engaged with this legacy and has produced ground-breaking reports, works on anti-Semitism, and shared conversa- tions in both the religious and political arenas. The most recent publication, If Not Now, When? is a stunning piece of work which I would highly recommend to you. It is a Jewish resource used throughout syna- gogues in the United Kingdom to inform the community about the persecution of Christians in the Middle East. It is an exemplar of the fruit of dialogue. Nostra Aetate concludes with a definitive reminder of the inherent rights and God-given dignity of every human being. But it goes further in prescribing discrim- ination of anyone, irrespective of their identity or creed, as being antithetical to the claim of Christian under- standing, witness or discipleship. We are all enriched by this declaration, and are still attempting to live out its challenges within the Church of England too. Thank you very much. I ECUMENICAL PERSPECT I VES OF NOSTRA AETATE Rev. Mark Poulson with the Archbishop of Canterbury during his visit to St. John’s Parish in Southall