Dr Williams and over 200 representatives from a cross section of church, inter-faith and community organizations joined Mrs Blears and Cohesion Minister Parmjit Dhanda earlier this week for the start of the “Face-to-Face and Side-by-Side” consultation.

The consultation will look at the inter-faith work currently underway in Britain and will recommend ways the government can support these initiatives in order to foster integration and social cohesion within the community.

It comes in response to the report ‘Our Shared Future’ published by the Commission on Integration and Cohesion published last June, which acknowledged the role faith groups play in reducing ethnic and social tensions. The Communities Secretary said: “Faith groups are a key part of the way we respond to the challenges we face from building strong resilient communities to tackling anti-social behaviour.”

The consultation, which runs through March 2008 ‘provides us with an opportunity to find out how Government can best support dialogue between faith groups and the circumstances in which inter faith activity is helping to make a positive difference,’ Mrs Blears said.

“By learning how we can all better work in partnership with each other to increase inter-faith dialogue and social action we can ensure that this activity results in tangible and positive change within local communities in terms of increased cohesion, greater community empowerment and resilience to extremism in all its forms,” the Minister said.

Last month the Bishop of St Albans, Christopher Herbert, urged the government to invest in inter-faith work. If the amount of money invested by the government in ‘soft architecture and barriers at stations could be directed with equal concern and excitement towards interfaith work, we should achieve a great deal more in the long term,’ he said.

Europedesk@religiousintelligence.com