Today, we can either degenerate into a more introspective, frightened and desperate society where people must fend for themselves or, alternatively, we can work together to build a new vision for Britain based on the recognition that we all belong, we all matter, and we can all make a difference.
Since 2001, the government has tried hard to address multicultural problems, with no less than five major reports on social cohesion. But few have managed to fulfil the stated aims because governments are reluctant to delegate real powers to communities.
However, in a 2006 speech Gordon Brown argued that British values were best carried out ‘by local clubs, associations, societies and endeavours – from churches and trade unions to municipal initiatives and friendly societies… creating out of the idea of duty and responsibility, the Britain of civic responsibility and the public realm’.
The Prime Minister’s vision of Britishness has much to commend it. It is rooted in our history, particularly in its understanding of liberty and freedom of the individual. This is balanced by the concept of civic responsibility, of care for each other, of neighbourliness.
But this vision of Britishness flounders if it does not allow for participation, involvement and commitment from individuals and communities. We need to ensure the call to Britishness is not in fact a call to exclusiveness rather than inclusiveness. The government must engage with what is happening to people in their daily lives and show that it trusts and has confidence in communities to demonstrate a sense of fairness and charity.
‘Gordon Brown’s vision of Britishness flounders if it does not allow for community participation’
Reclaiming our faith heritage is also central to regaining our big vision for Britain and it is here that religious communities can make a special contribution. They play an enormous role in helping to build up faithful capital in local communities, by helping achieve community cohesion and urban regeneration.
They already have as their foundation a vision that acts as a moral framework and starting point for all they do. They do much of their work on the ground – congregations, clergy and volunteers run an enormous range of services from asylum rights’ centres, homeless outreach, job creation and economic regeneration programmes, youth clubs and projects helping developing countries.
We must help people rediscover the quality of fraternity as the key to reestablishing our vision. We have focused, particularly in the past 50 years, on liberty and equality but we have tended to underestimate the importance of fraternity, without which neither true liberty nor true equality can be achieved.
Fraternity is about learning to live together using the family as model. One of the great lessons of growing up is learning to live together, to accept, tolerate, negotiate and love each other. Our churches, when they are working well, are good models of this. It is not about choosing who we care to live with but about asking ‘how can I learn to live alongside and contribute to our common life in this community?’
It is urgent we do so as we face the global financial crisis. The sudden threat to our banks, businesses and many of the things we have taken for granted for so long has brought home to us in a painful way that we have been tempted to put our trust in false securities
(and I would argue false gods) and we need
to think again.
Dr John Sentamu is the Archbishop of York.
