New Statesman and Big Society

The latest edition of the New Statesman has been guest-edited by Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and has managed to put the cat among the pigeons as he used his leader to warn the coalition government that it is committing the country to "radical, long-term policies for which no one voted". Reaction to his piece is being collated on the New Statesman website and can be read by clicking here.

Dr Williams commissioned a wide range of essays, articles and reports in conjunction with New Statesman editors for the 80-page special issue, including articles by Philip Pullman on being a "Church of England atheist", Iain Duncan Smith on cracking down on welfare abuse, Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks on why religion can build a better society than the so-called "big society", Gordon Brown on how the world is failing young people and Richard Curtis on malaria, being commissioned by an Archbishop. He also discussed Libya, torture and Britain's declining role in the world with Foreign Secretary William Hague.

Looking at new research by the Harvard sociologist Robert Puttnam, Jonathan Sacks writes that places of worship still bring people together in "mutual responsibility":

"The evidence shows that religious people - defined by regular attendance at a place of worship - actually do make better neighbours."

The research shows that this willingness to give time to volunteering is directly tied to the frequency with which they attend a place of worship. Sacks suggests a reason for this:

"Religion creates community, community creates altruism and altruism turns us away from self and towards the common good... There is something about the tenor of relationships within a religious community that makes it the best tutorial in citizenship and good neighbourliness."

"If we're searching for the big society, this is where we will find it," writes Sacks. However, he is not romantic about this, and expresses some reservations about the big society agenda:

"Does this mean that we are about to become more religious as a society, or that charity is an adequate substitute for government spending, or that faith communities are our only source of altruism? No. Britain, relative to the US, is a highly secular society. Philanthropy alone cannot fill the gap left by government cutbacks. And the sources of altruism go deep into our evolutionary past."

All particularly apposite as today I firmed up details of a Big Society Mapping Event, organised together with the London Borough of Redbridge, for faith groups in the borough which is to be held on Tuesday 5th July from 10.30am - 1.00pm at Holy Trinity Barkingside (Holy Trinity Church, Mossford Green, Barkingside, IG6 2BX).

The event will include presentations from Tasnim Iqbal, Redbridge CVS and Chair of the Big Society Working Group, and either Cllr Alan Weinberg, Cabinet Member for Children's Services, or John Powell, Director of Adult Social Services. The event will provide faith groups with an opportunity to contribute information on the kind of services and facilities that we currently provide in the borough and to explore how faiths group and the Council can work more closely to provide new opportunities in the borough.

I'll be contributing to the event on the Big Society in Redbridge from a faith perspective and will no doubt draw on some of the Chief Rabbi's insights.
 
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The Holmes Brothers - Feed My Soul.