Your Grace:
I have been honoured by this invitation from Bishop Azad Marshall to say a few words of welcome on behalf of open-hearted citizens of Lahore.
Your Grace represents the third corner of a golden triangle of three Abrahamic faiths – Judaism, Christianity and Islam. History has condemned them to a tradition of confrontation. The future commands them to coexist through reconciliation.
Your Grace has repeatedly emphasised three tenets – Renewal of prayer, Reconciliation, and sharing a Respect for each other’s faith. It is the latter two that bring you to Lahore on a pilgrimage of conciliation and cohesion.
Few of your predecessors have been called out, as much as you have, to state the position of the Church on the gamut of issues that challenge modern societies. Few have been as forthcoming and as outspoken as you on topics that are complex, contentious, and often controversial.
Six years ago, you made a visit of compassion to Pakistan in support of the Christian victims of terror.
Three years ago, at the Regent’s Park mosque in London, you declared: ‘Hatred of Muslims denies and blasphemes Christ. Those who co-opt Christian language and history for hatred commit blasphemy.’
Your courage has inspired all of us - on every side of the religious chasm that divides mankind as God never intended.
Your Grace, I have been privileged to receive two of your predecessors – Dr George Carey and later Dr Rowan Williams. Both by their visits to Pakistan broadened the dimensions of much-needed interfaith understanding.
Let me end these brief words of welcome, though, by quoting the late Dr Jonathan Sacks, former Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom. I mention him deliberately he completes the golden triangle of Abrahamic faiths.
He wrote: ‘Faith does not mean certainty. It means the courage to live with uncertainty.’
As monotheists, we believe in the one God – whatever label we attach to Him. We pray to him, as you do, in ‘different tongues’.
We need to Reconcile, Renew and Respect each other’s faiths. Your visit brings us closer to that achievable goal.
F. S. AIJAZUDDIN, OBE,
HONORARY BRITISH CONSUL, LAHORE |