A project to make the City of London the most faith-friendly and religiously literate business district in the world has been launched by the City of London Corporation at Mansion House.
More than 100 business and faith leaders attended the launch of Faith in the City, where the Lord Mayor, Alastair King, spoke of the importance of understanding the faith needs of the 678,000 people who work in the Square Mile, bringing diverse communities together into the talent pool.
He said that in a fractured world “We want to help corporate leaders deal with faith matters more competently.”
He explained that the project was part of the City Belonging Project, supporting and improving the links between diversity networks in a city that is the most diverse in the world. It is also part of the City Corporation’s Destination City programme to drive growth in the Square Mile, ensuring it is open and welcoming to diverse talent and visitors.
The co-convenors of the meeting, experienced in interfaith work, explained the plan. Michael Wakelin, also executive chairman of the Religion Media Centre, said the meeting was the launchpad for a wide consultation exercise to understand the faith needs of the Square Mile. It would involve online questionnaires, focus groups and individual conversations, to put forward ideas for the future, which would be for the benefit of all communities in the Square Mile and beyond.
The study will inform future policies and projects, including access to prayer spaces, dietary needs, faith-based communities, and a broad programme of inclusive events. Chris Hayward, policy chairman of the City of London Corporation, said it was the corporation’s duty “to ensure the Square Mile is open and welcoming to all, with the facilities and services needed by our diverse communities”.
Rabbi Alex Goldberg, another co-convenor, gave examples of interfaith models in other financial capitals and large organisations. He is also the principal chaplain at Surrey University, where the chaplaincy serves students and fulfils business needs, including international recruitment and retention. There are 33 chaplains, prayer spaces for all main religious traditions, training programmes for chaplains, and campus-wide dietary provision meaning every student can have lunch there.
He said Canary Wharf had another chaplaincy model with five part-time and one full-time chaplain, supported by businesses on the estate, who work with human resources and equality and diversity staff. He reminded the meeting of the 2012 London Olympics, where there were 119 chaplains and considerations such as dietary provisions available across the park, so everyone involved would feel welcome.
Faith leaders in the City were on hand to explain how their work had developed to serve an ever-growing, more diverse community and they set out what they are seeking to do.
The Rev Josh Harris of St Katharine Cree, the grade I listed Guild Church for Workers, said they went out to meet 500 people including night workers, cleaners, taxi drivers and business leaders and realised new arrivals had all kinds of backgrounds, languages and religious practices. Today their congregation is primarily Latin American, because most of the cleaners are. They offer services in other languages and open their space for community events.
Yunus Dudhwala, who heads the chaplaincy at Barts Health NHS Trust, said the hospital had a diverse staff, community and patients. They had multifaith prayer rooms and the changing needs were sometimes challenging.
Louise Zekaria, director of diversity and Inclusion at Macfarlanes LLP, said her firm had addressed creating prayer spaces and a contemplative space for people of no faith; advised on dietary requirements especially for events; given information on religious festivals; put on cultural events; organised reverse monitoring where junior staff helped seniors understand their faith; and, above all, provided education so the business could be fully inclusive of faith.
The public consultation got off to an energetic start, as attendees took part in an interactive question and answer session, led by the third co-convenor, Sughra Ahmed. Their answers revealed they were hoping to achieve community, respect, diversity and inclusion. Their list of needs included prayer spaces, workplace provisions, faith literacy, career progression, events and an active community.
The results of the consultation will be known later this year and will inform future policies and projects.
